Static?

[Aibbie]

For some odd reason, I took a computer programming course back in fall (I still don't understand why I did that since computers are more foreign to me than aliens) sadly the course exam is coming up, and there are quite a bit of information that I've forgotten...

Anyways, for those of you who remotely understand computer programming and Java, I'd be most grateful if you can tell me what the "static" key word is functioned as in a set of code.

[YopY]

A Static bit of information (i.e. a method / function or a field / variable / whatever) is basically accessible without having an instance of the class you've put it in. You can use it to put in data and/or methods that are accessible from anywhere, for example a counter that keeps track of the amount of instances of a class

class Pete {

private int aNumber;
static int instances;

public Pete( int num ) {
   aNumber = num;
   Pete. instances++;
}
}

, or a method that resets the counter

[code]

class Pete {

static void Reset() {
Pete.instances = 0;
}
}

Which is basically it. As far as I know, you can't declare variables or methods outside of a class (contrary to more old-school languages like C and/or PHP), so the Static keyword is the way to still be able to do stuff like that.

Look here for some more detailed information (or if the above is still too complex, ), for great justice.

[Aibbie]

Ah I see, thank you very much.

Since the teacher is new and rather incompetent I've resolved to asking people and reading the textbook (*shudders*), and I must say your explanation is more straightforwards than the book's sad excuse for a definition...