Java’s public static void main(String[] args)

or “what the hell have I got myself into?”

As a new Java programmer, I keep asking myself, what does this line of code public static void main(String[] args) that is at the beginning of every Java program means?

After poking around, I found out the answer for this on a Java Forums. Here’s the answer in short:

The method is public because it be accessible to the JVM to begin execution of the program.

It is static because it be available for execution without an object instance. you may know that you need an object instance to invoke any method. So you cannot begin execution of a class without its object if the main method was not static.

It returns only a void because, once the main method execution is over, the program terminates. So there can be no data that can be returned by the Main method

The last parameter is String args[]. This is used to signify that the user may opt to enter parameters to the java program at command line. We can use both String[] args or String args[]. The Java compiler would accept both forms.
— arefeh from Java Forums

This might seem like a trivial post, but I wanted to have it here to remind me of what it means later, and as a quick way for me to reference it.

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