Class initializer may be 'static'

Reports instance initializers which may be made static.

An instance initializer may be static if it does not reference any of its class' non-static members. Static initializers are executed once the class is resolved, while instance initializers are executed on each instantiation of the class.

This inspection doesn't report instance empty initializers and initializers in anonymous classes.

Example:

  class A {
     public static String CONSTANT;
     {
        CONSTANT = "Hello";
     }
  }

After the quick-fix is applied:

  class A {
     public static String CONSTANT;
     static {
        CONSTANT = "Hello"; //now initialized only once per class
     }
  }

Locating this inspection

By ID

Can be used to locate inspection in e.g. Qodana configuration files, where you can quickly enable or disable it, or adjust its settings.

ClassInitializerMayBeStatic

Via Settings dialog

Path to the inspection settings via IntelliJ Platform IDE Settings dialog, when you need to adjust inspection settings directly from your IDE.

Settings or Preferences | Editor | Inspections | Java | Performance

Suppressing Inspection

You can suppress this inspection by placing the following comment marker before the code fragment where you no longer want messages from this inspection to appear:

//noinspection ClassInitializerMayBeStatic

More detailed instructions as well as other ways and options that you have can be found in the product documentation:

IntelliJ IDEA 2025.2

Inspection Details
By default bundled with:	IntelliJ IDEA 2025.2, Qodana for JVM 2025.2,

Last modified: 18 September 2025