static members!!

[Brian Smith]

hi folks,
i am wondering why static variable or method does not need an intance of a class where they are defined to access them? i.e, if a variable and method are static, we could like this:
classname.static valriable; WHY?

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

Why? Because!
Static variables are shared among all the instances of a class, and therefore exist outside of any one instance. The classic example is something like

class Cow {
    private static int s_cowCount = 0;
    public Cow() {
        ++s_cowCount;
    }
    public static int getTotalNumber() {
        return s_cowCount;
    }
}

The static variable counts the number of Cows that are created. The method getTotalNumber() tells you how many Cows. You call it like

    int count = Cow.getTotalNumber();

It would be silly to have to create another Cow just to find out how many Cows there are, right? It makes sense to ask how many there are even if you don't have a reference to a single one.