How to share class constants between classes?

Question

I have 3 different classes that both use some constant values. Currently, I'm defining all of them for each of the class. How do I centralize them?

I tried to create a new static class with just the constants, and then use static import in my classes, but that didn't work. The class could not be imported successfully.

PS: I don't want to use enum and interface.

How come the solution with the new class and static import did not work? What was the error message? — Cyrille Ka, Feb 20 '13 at 23:41
@DaveJarvis It's a really bad practice, as I found by my research. — Karan Goel, Feb 20 '13 at 23:43
@CyrilleKarmann The import doesn't work, the classes don't compile. — Karan Goel, Feb 20 '13 at 23:43
question already asked http://stackoverflow.com/questions/66066/what-is-the-best-way-to-implement-constants-in-java — Sami Jmii, Feb 20 '13 at 23:45
@Javier That didn't work. I have a class called `constants` and I use `import static constants.*;` but it didn't work. Error: `The import constants cannot be resolved` — Karan Goel, Feb 21 '13 at 00:06

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 21 '13 at 00:12

You cannot import classes from the default package (i.e. the /src directory). You need to include the package name in the import clause, even if both classes are in the same package.

For instance:

Class Main in /src
Class Constants in /src/utils

In class Main:

 import static utils.Constants.*;
 class Main {...}

In class Constants

 package utils.Constants;
 class Constants {...}

How to share class constants between classes?

1 Answers1