What Are Static Class And Static Class Members In C#

Static Classes and Static Class Members

A static class is a class which can not be instantiated. We do not need to create an object of a static class like we did in non-static classes. Members of static classes can be accessed directly using the class name followed by a (.) and class member name. Class Members can be methods, fields, properties, or events. A static class can contain only the static members while a non-static class can contain static members. Also, Static classes are by-default sealed so they cannot be inherited.

To declare a class and its members as static, 'static' keyword are used as shown below,

using System;
namespace Tutpoint
{
// Static class
static class TutLovers
{
// Static Variable
public static int val_Static;
// Static Method
public static void Addition_Static()
{
Console.Write("Static Method");
}
// Static property
public static int Addition_NonStatic
{
get; set;
}
}

For more understanding see the example shown below,

The example shown below contains two non-static classes named "TutLovers" and "TutHaters". Here a class "TutLovers" contains static as well as non-static methods and variable. When we access them from class "TutHaters" then, For the static members, they will be accessed directly using class name followed by (.) and

For non-static members, we have created an object of that class.

using System;
namespace Tutpoint
{
class TutLovers
{
public static int val_Static;
public int val_NonStatic;
public static void Addition_Static()
{
Console.Write("Static Method");
}
public void Addition_NonStatic()
{
Console.Write("Non-Static Method");
}
}
//If the class is non-static
class TutHaters
{
public void Haters()
{
//Object of TutLovers class is created
TutLovers tutLovers = new TutLovers();
//Non-Static members can be called only from object
tutLovers.Addition_NonStatic();
tutLovers.val_NonStatic = 5;
//Static members can only be called using class_name followed by a (.)
TutLovers.Addition_Static();
TutLovers.val_Static = 5;
/* When we try to access static member from object then it will create an error
Error as "Members 'TutLovers.Addition_Static()' can not be accessed with an instance referen -ce; qualify it with a type name instead" */
tutLovers.Addition_Static();
/* When we try to access non-static member using class_name then it will create an error
Error as "An object reference is required for the non-static field , method or property 'TutLovers.Addition_NonStatic()'" */
TutLovers.Addition_NonStatic();
}
}
}

As shown above, when we try to access static member with an instance reference, it will create an error as "Members 'TutLovers.Addition_Static()' can not be accessed with an instance reference; qualify it with a type name instead" and when we try to access non-static member using class_name then it will create an error as "An object reference is required for the non-static field, method or property 'TutLovers.Addition_NonStatic()'".

Note

There exists only one copy for every static member regardless of the number of instances of the class.
Static methods can access only static members. They cannot access non-static members.
A static class can only contain static members.

2 Comments

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chetan patidar8y ago
why static class and satic members .. can share any real time usecase for this
- Shubham Jain8y ago
  Here are the best links to answer your questions. http://www.csharpmagic.com/static-class-real-time-example/ http://qa.geeksforgeeks.org/2707/qa.geeksforgeeks.org/2707/what-is-the-real-life-example-of-static-variable-used-in-c-c http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/forums/public-static-classname-obj-new-classname