Static Class Members

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Static Class Members

Static members belong to the class itself rather than to any individual object. All objects of the class share the same static variable. When a new object is created, the constructor increments the counter. Static functions can access static members without needing an object. Use Counter::count to access the shared variable directly, or Counter::getCount() to use the static method. This pattern is useful for tracking how many objects of a class have been created.

snippet.cpp
cpp
#include <iostream>
 
class Counter {
public:
    static int count;
    
    Counter() {
        count++;
    }
    
    static int getCount() {
        return count;
    }
};
 
int Counter::count = 0;
 
 
int main() {
    Counter c1;
    Counter c2;
    Counter c3;
    
    std::cout << "Objects created: " << Counter::getCount() << std::endl;
    
    return 0;
}

Breakdown

static int count;

Declares a static member variable shared by all instances

Counter() { count++; }

Constructor increments count each time an object is created

static int getCount() { ... }

Static function that returns the shared counter value

int Counter::count = 0;

Definition and initialization of static member outside class

Counter::getCount()

Calling static method using class name instead of object

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Static Class Members

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