What is a good use case for static import of methods?
- by Miserable Variable
Just got a review comment that my static import of the method was not a good idea. The static import was of a method from a DA class, which has mostly static methods. So in middle of the business logic I had a da activity that apparently seemed to belong to the current class:
import static some.package.DA.*;
class BusinessObject {
void someMethod() {
....
save(this);
}
}
The reviewer was not keen that I change the code and I didn't but I do kind of agree with him. One reason given for not static-importing was it was confusing where the method was defined, it wasn't in the current class and not in any superclass so it too some time to identify its definition (the web based review system does not have clickable links like IDE :-) I don't really think this matters, static-imports are still quite new and soon we will all get used to locating them.
But the other reason, the one I agree with, is that an unqualified method call seems to belong to current object and should not jump contexts. But if it really did belong, it would make sense to extend that super class.
So, when does it make sense to static import methods? When have you done it? Did/do you like the way the unqualified calls look?
EDIT: The popular opinion seems to be that static-import methods if nobody is going to confuse them as methods of the current class. For example methods from java.lang.Math and java.awt.Color. But if abs and getAlpha are not ambiguous I don't see why readEmployee is. As in lot of programming choices, I think this too is a personal preference thing.
Thanks for your response guys, I am closing the question.
