Static members
- A static member belongs to the class rather than to the objects of the class.
- Static members are also known as class members and non-static members are known as instance members.
- Indexers in C# can't declared as static.
- All un-initialized static fields automatically get initialized to their default values when the class is loaded first time.
- A derived class can inherit a static member.
- But a static member in C# can't be marked as override, virtual or abstract. However it is possible to hide a base class static method in a derived class by using the keyword new.
Static constructor
- A static constructor is used to initialize any static data, or to perform a particular action that needs performed once only.
- It is called automatically before the first instance is created or any static members are referenced.
- A static constructor does not take access modifiers or have parameters.
- A static constructor cannot be called directly.
- The user has no control on when the static constructor is executed in the program.
- A typical use of static constructors is when the class is using a log file and the constructor is used to write entries to this file.
- Static constructors are also useful when creating wrapper classes for unmanaged code, when the constructor can call the LoadLibrary method.
