静态方法应该在类上调用，实例方法应该在类的实例上调用。但这在现实中意味着什么呢?下面是一个有用的例子:

car类可能有一个名为Accelerate()的实例方法。你只能加速一个汽车，如果汽车确实存在(已经构造)，因此这将是一个实例方法。

car类也可能有一个名为GetCarCount()的计数方法。这将返回创建(或构造)的汽车总数。如果没有构造汽车，这个方法将返回0，但它仍然可以被调用，因此它必须是一个静态方法。

可以使用静态方法，如果

One does not want to perform an action on an instance (utility methods) As mentioned in few of above answers in this post, converting miles to kilometers, or calculating temperature from Fahrenheit to Celsius and vice-versa. With these examples using static method, it does not need to instantiate whole new object in heap memory. Consider below 1. new ABCClass(double farenheit).convertFarenheitToCelcium() 2. ABCClass.convertFarenheitToCelcium(double farenheit) the former creates a new class footprint for every method invoke, Performance, Practical. Examples are Math and Apache-Commons library StringUtils class below: Math.random() Math.sqrt(double) Math.min(int, int) StringUtils.isEmpty(String) StringUtils.isBlank(String) One wants to use as a simple function. Inputs are explictly passed, and getting the result data as return value. Inheritence, object instanciation does not come into picture. Concise, Readable.

注意: 很少有人反对静态方法的可测试性，但是静态方法也可以被测试!使用jMockit，可以模拟静态方法。可测试性。在下面的例子:

new MockUp<ClassName>() {
    @Mock
    public int doSomething(Input input1, Input input2){
        return returnValue;
    }
};

使用静态方法有一些合理的理由:

Performance: if you want some code to be run, and don't want to instantiate an extra object to do so, shove it into a static method. The JVM also can optimize static methods a lot (I think I've once read James Gosling declaring that you don't need custom instructions in the JVM, since static methods will be just as fast, but couldn't find the source - thus it could be completely false). Yes, it is micro-optimization, and probably unneeded. And we programmers never do unneeded things just because they are cool, right? Practicality: instead of calling new Util().method(arg), call Util.method(arg), or method(arg) with static imports. Easier, shorter. Adding methods: you really wanted the class String to have a removeSpecialChars() instance method, but it's not there (and it shouldn't, since your project's special characters may be different from the other project's), and you can't add it (since Java is somewhat sane), so you create an utility class, and call removeSpecialChars(s) instead of s.removeSpecialChars(). Sweet. Purity: taking some precautions, your static method will be a pure function, that is, the only thing it depends on is its parameters. Data in, data out. This is easier to read and debug, since you don't have inheritance quirks to worry about. You can do it with instance methods too, but the compiler will help you a little more with static methods (by not allowing references to instance attributes, overriding methods, etc.).

如果你想创建一个单例，你还必须创建一个静态方法，但是…不喜欢。我的意思是，三思而后行。

更重要的是，为什么不想创建静态方法?基本上，多态被抛在了脑后。你不能重写这个方法，也不能在接口中声明它(在java 8之前)。这给你的设计带来了很大的灵活性。此外，如果您需要状态，如果您不小心，您将以大量并发错误和/或瓶颈告终。

在eclipse中，您可以启用一个警告，它可以帮助您检测潜在的静态方法。(在高亮线上方是另一个我忘记高亮的线)

实际上，我们在类中使用静态属性和方法，当我们想要使用程序的某些部分时，它们应该一直存在，直到程序运行为止。我们知道，要操作静态属性，我们需要静态方法，因为它们不是实例变量的一部分。如果没有静态方法，操作静态属性是非常耗时的。

静态方法应该在类上调用，实例方法应该在类的实例上调用。但这在现实中意味着什么呢?下面是一个有用的例子:

car类可能有一个名为Accelerate()的实例方法。你只能加速一个汽车，如果汽车确实存在(已经构造)，因此这将是一个实例方法。

car类也可能有一个名为GetCarCount()的计数方法。这将返回创建(或构造)的汽车总数。如果没有构造汽车，这个方法将返回0，但它仍然可以被调用，因此它必须是一个静态方法。