static

Examples

A static counter is shared by all objects:

class User {
    static int count = 0;
    String name;
 
    User(String name) {
        this.name = name;
        count++;
    }
}
 
void main() {
    new User("Anna");
    new User("Oleg");
    IO.println(User.count);
}

Output:

2

A static method is called on the class name, without an object:

class MathUtils {
    static int square(int x) {
        return x * x;
    }
}
 
void main() {
    IO.println(MathUtils.square(7));
    IO.println(Math.max(3, 8));
}

Output:

49
8

Notes

A static method cannot see the object's fields or this — it has no "current object". The error "non-static variable cannot be referenced from a static context" means a static method used an instance field or method.

Methods like Math.max(), Integer.parseInt(), List.of() are static, which is why they are called on the class name.