Are values returned by static method are static?

Question

Please consider this code

public class Utilities
{
     public static MyClass GetMyClass()
     {
          MyClass cls = new MyClass();
          return cls;
     }
}

Will this static method return a new instance of MyClass every time it is called? or it is going to return a reference to the same instance over and over?

Answer 1

Declaring a method static means it is a class method and can be called on the class without an instance (and can't access instance members because there's no object in context to use - no this).

Look at the code below. Expected output:

[1] Different
[2] Same

If you want a variable to have the lifetime of the class and return the same object every time also declare the variable as static in the class:

public static String getThing(){
    String r=new String("ABC");//Created every time the method is invoked.
    return r;
}

private static String sr=new String("ABC");//Static member - one for the whole class.

public static String getStaticThing(){
    return sr;
}

public static void main (String[] args) throws java.lang.Exception
{
    String thing1=getThing();
    String thing2=getThing();
    if(thing1==thing2){
        System.out.println("[1] Same");
    }else{
        System.out.println("[1] Different");
    }
    
    String thing1s=getStaticThing();
    String thing2s=getStaticThing();
    if(thing1s==thing2s){
        System.out.println("[2] Same");
    }else{
        System.out.println("[2] Different");
    }
}