sgammon/GUST

Utility classes, which are collections of static members, are not meant to be instantiated. Even abstract utility classes, which can be extended, should not have public constructors.

Java adds an implicit public constructor to every class which does not define at least one explicitly. Hence, at least one non-public constructor should be defined.

Noncompliant Code Example

class StringUtils { // Noncompliant

  public static String concatenate(String s1, String s2) {
    return s1 + s2;
  }

}

Compliant Solution

class StringUtils { // Compliant

  private StringUtils() {
    throw new IllegalStateException("Utility class");
  }

  public static String concatenate(String s1, String s2) {
    return s1 + s2;
  }

}

Exceptions

When class contains public static void main(String[] args) method it is not considered as utility class and will be ignored by this rule.

Checks that the order of modifiers conforms to the suggestions inthe JavaLanguage specification, § 8.1.1, 8.3.1, 8.4.3 and9.4. The correct order is:

1. public
2. protected
3. private
4. abstract
5. default
6. static
7. final
8. transient
9. volatile
10. synchronized
11. native
12. strictfp

In additional, modifiers are checked to ensure all annotations aredeclared before all other modifiers.

Rationale: Code is easier to read if everybody follows a standard.

ATTENTION: We skiptype annotations from validation.

This documentation is written and maintained by the Checkstyle community and is covered under the same license as the Checkstyle project.