In object-oriented programming with classes, a class variable is a variable defined in a class (i.e. a member variable) of which a single copy exists, regardless of how many instances of the class exist.
A class variable is not an instance variable. It is a special type of class attribute (or class property, field, or data member).
In Java, C#, and C++, class variables are declared with the keyword static, and may therefore be referred to as static member variables.
The same dichotomy between instance and class members applies to methods ("member functions") as well; a class may have both instance methods and class methods. Again, Java, C#, and C++ use the keyword static to indicate that a method is a class method ("static member function").
Read more about Class Variable: Example
Famous quotes containing the words class and/or variable:
“The Americans never use the word peasant, because they have no idea of the class which that term denotes; the ignorance of more remote ages, the simplicity of rural life, and the rusticity of the villager have not been preserved among them; and they are alike unacquainted with the virtues, the vices, the coarse habits, and the simple graces of an early stage of civilization.”
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859)
“Walked forth to ease my pain
Along the shore of silver streaming Thames,
Whose rutty bank, the which his river hems,
Was painted all with variable flowers,”
—Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599)