Are static methods inherited in Java?

Question

I was reading A Programmer’s Guide to Java™ SCJP Certification by Khalid Mughal.

In the Inheritance chapter, it explains that

Inherit

Answer 1

All methods that are accessible are inherited by subclasses.

From the Sun Java Tutorials:

A subclass inherits all of the public and protected members of its parent, no matter what package the subclass is in. If the subclass is in the same package as its parent, it also inherits the package-private members of the parent. You can use the inherited members as is, replace them, hide them, or supplement them with new members

The only difference with inherited static (class) methods and inherited non-static (instance) methods is that when you write a new static method with the same signature, the old static method is just hidden, not overridden.

From the page on the difference between overriding and hiding.

The distinction between hiding and overriding has important implications. The version of the overridden method that gets invoked is the one in the subclass. The version of the hidden method that gets invoked depends on whether it is invoked from the superclass or the subclass

Answer 2

You can experience the difference in following code, which is slightly modification over your code.

class A {
    public static void display() {
        System.out.println("Inside static method of superclass");
    }
}

class B extends A {
    public void show() {
        display();
    }

    public static void display() {
        System.out.println("Inside static method of this class");
    }
}

public class Test {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        B b = new B();
        // prints: Inside static method of this class
        b.display();

        A a = new B();
        // prints: Inside static method of superclass
        a.display();
    }
}

This is due to static methods are class methods.

A.display() and B.display() will call method of their respective classes.