使用getter访问静态对象，“公共静态”或“私有静态”的最佳实践

Question

I have a class Foo which contain a static Map<String, String> myMap and some public static methods which manipulate myMap .

myMap is common Map("common content") for some classes in my project.

Those classes, which need myMap , only read data from it and always change data from myMap using methods from Foo .

My question is: How is the best practice to declare and access myMap , in my case? As public static and access like Foo.myMap or as private static and acces like Foo.getMyMap() which will return a copy of myMap ( new HashMap<String, String>(myMap) ). Or this depends only by my preferences?

Answer 1

Follow these steps in the following order:

1. Try to avoid static in general, because it is not in regards to OOP principles.
2. If you insist to use static , the field must be final regardless of the access way usage.
3. Prefer getters over public visibility modifier.

But yes, it depends always to your preferences.