Are static variables inherited

I have read at 1000’s of locations that Static variables are not inherited. But then how this code works fine?

Parent.java

public class Parent {
        static String str = "Parent";
    }

Child.java

public class Child extends Parent {
        public static void main(String [] args)
        {
            System.out.println(Child.str);
        }
    }

This code prints “Parent”.

Also read at few locations concept of data hiding.

Parent.java

public class Parent {
    static String str = "Parent";
}

Child.java

public class Child extends Parent {
    static String str = "Child";

    public static void main(String [] args)
    {
        System.out.println(Child.str);
    }
}

Now the output is “Child”.

So does this mean that static variables are inherited but they follow the concept of data-hiding?

Answer

Please have a look into the documentation of oracle: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/specs/jls/se8/html/jls-8.html#d5e12110

Static variables are inherited as long as they’re are not hidden by another static variable with the same identifier.