typeMethod Option

The typeMethod method option indicates that the method is a type method.

A type method provides a way of calling a method declared on a type (class, primitive, or interface) without having to have an instance of the type. While the method is declared on a type and has the same scope as an instance method, at run time the receiver is the type on which the method is declared; not an instance of the type.

Type methods enable you to define and call methods on class, primitive, or interface types without having to instantiate a dummy object, which simplifies aspects of JADE application development. Examples of a type method are a:

• Factory method that creates and initializes instances of a class.

• Method that sums the values of all of the properties for all instances of a class (for example, a Product class could have a type method to compute the average price of all products).

A type method is identified by the typeMethod method option on the method declaration; for example:

demoTypeMethod() typeMethod;

For details, see "Type Methods", later in this chapter.