oop - Java: Overriding static variable of parent class?

Question

I have the following class which I'm using as the base of all the models in my project:

public abstract class BaseModel
{
    static String table;
    static String idField = "id";       

    public static boolean exists(long id) throws Exception
    {
        Db db = Util.getDb();
        Query q = db.query();
        q.select( idField ).whereLong(idField, id).limit(1).get(table);

        return q.hasResults();
    }

    //snip..
}

I'm then trying to extend from it, in the following way:

public class User extends BaseModel
{
    static String table = "user";
    //snip
}

However, if I try to do the following:

if ( User.exists( 4 ) )
   //do something

Then, rather than the query: "SELECT id FROM user WHERE id = ?", it is producing the query: "SELECT id from null WHERE id = ?". So, the overriding of the table field in the User class doesn't seem to be having any effect.

How do I overcome this? If I added a setTable() method to BaseModel, and called setTable() in the constructor of User, then will the new value of table be available to all methods of the User class as well?

Answer 1

You cannot override static methods or fields of any type in Java.

public class User extends BaseModel
{
    static String table = "user";
    //snip
}

This creates a new field User#table that just happens to have the same name as BaseModel#table. Most IDEs will warn you about that.

If you change the value of the field in BaseModel, it will apply to all other model classes as well.

One way is to have the base methods generic

protected static boolean exists(String table, long id) throws Exception
{
    Db db = Util.getDb();
    Query q = db.query();
    q.select( idField ).whereLong(idField, id).limit(1).get(table);

    return q.hasResults();
}

and use it in the subclass

public static boolean exists(long id)
{
    return exists("user", id);
}

If you want to use the field approach, you have to create a BaseDAO class and have a UserDAO (one for each model class) that sets the field accordingly. Then you create singleton instances of all the daos.