Core Java Interview Questions and Answers

Question: What does the "final" keyword mean in front of a variable? A method? A class?

Answer: FINAL for a variable : value is constant
FINAL for a method : cannot be overridden
FINAL for a class : cannot be derived
A final variable cannot be reassigned,
but it is not constant. For instance,
final StringBuffer x = new StringBuffer()
x.append("hello");
is valid. X cannot have a new value in it,but nothing stops operations on the object
that it refers, including destructive operations. Also, a final method cannot be overridden
or hidden by new access specifications.This means that the compiler can choose
to in-line the invocation of such a method.(I don't know if any compiler actually does
this, but it's true in theory.) The best example of a final class is
String, which defines a class that cannot be derived.