Static Classes

Static classes:

• Contain only static members.
• Cannot be instantiated.
• Are implicitly sealed (cannot be derived from).
• Cannot contain instance constructors (only static constructors).

It is more common to declare a non-static class with some static members than to declare an entire class static.

If a class contains static fields, provide a static constructor to initialize them.

Static Members

A non-static class may contain static methods, fields, properties, or events. Static methods and properties cannot access non-static fields and events in their type.

Uses for Static Fields

1. Keeping count of the number of objects that have been instantiated.
2. Store a value that must be shared among all instances.