Questions tagged [final-class]

A Final Class is simply a class that can't be extended.

(This does not mean that all references to objects of the class would act as if they were declared as final.)

TO ADDRESS THE FINAL CLASS PROBLEM:

There are two ways to make a class final. The first is to use the keyword final in the class declaration:

public final class SomeClass {
  //  . . . Class contents
}

The second way to make a class final is to declare all of its constructors as private:

public class SomeClass {
  public final static SOME_INSTANCE = new SomeClass(5);
  private SomeClass(final int value) {
  }

Marking it final saves you the trouble if finding out that it is actual a final, to demonstrate look at this Test class. looks public at first glance.

public class Test{
  private Test(Class beanClass, Class stopClass, int flags)
    throws Exception{
    //  . . . snip . . . 
  }
}

Unfortunately, since the only constructor of the class is private, it is impossible to extend this class. In the case of the Test class, there is no reason that the class should be final. The Test class is a good example of how implicit final classes can cause problems.

So you should mark it final when you implicitly make a class final by making it's constructor private.