Class Variable

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:

    I read, with a kind of hopeless envy, histories and legends of people of our craft who “do not write for money.” It must be a pleasant experience to be able to cultivate so delicate a class of motives for the privilege of doing one’s best to express one’s thoughts to people who care for them. Personally, I have yet to breathe the ether of such a transcendent sphere. I am proud to say that I have always been a working woman, and always had to be ...
    Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (1844–1911)

    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)