In laymans terms, what does 'static' mean in Java?

Question

I have been told several definitions for it, looked on Wikipedia, but as a beginner to Java I'm still not sure what it means. Anybody fluent in Java and idiot?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

static means that the variable or method marked as such is available at the class level. In other words, you don't need to create an instance of the class to access it.

public class Foo {
    public static void doStuff(){
        // does stuff
    }
}

So, instead of creating an instance of Foo and then calling doStuff like this:

Foo f = new Foo();
f.doStuff();

You just call the method directly against the class, like so:

Foo.doStuff();

Does that help? Please let me know if that's not clear.

Good luck!

Answer 2

In very laymen terms the class is a mold and the object is the copy made with that mold. Static belong to the mold and can be accessed directly without making any copies, hence the example above