A static member is a data field that is shared by all instances of a class or structure for the same program. Static member exists even when no objects of the static data member's class exist. A feature of C++, roughly equivalent to Java static fields.
Static member can be accessed using type qualifier, even if there is no instance of the class. They must be declared outside the class declaration:
// class declaration:
class a_class { static int sf; };
// field declaration:
int a_class::sf = 17;
Apart data fields, it can be static methods that have no access to the non-static fields but for that can be invoked without having the instance, also by type qualifier:
struct a_struct { static long the_function(); };
...
long v = a_struct::the_function();
