A Simple Example

The following example uses our class above. Notice for the static�member, we do not use a variable, instead we use the class name directly. That's why static members are sometimes referred to as class members. Static members belong to the class�and are referenced by the class name.

Note: The public member fields cyborgName and cyborgAge are used here for demonstration only. You normally want to make them private and access them via a member property. Also not that cyborgName and cyborgAge start with a lowercase "c" and SeriesID starts with an uppercase "S". The reason I did this is normally you would make use of read-write public member fields. You would make them private. It is common to make member fields lowercase and properities uppercase.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace CR_MemberFields
{
  public partial class Form1 : Form
  {
    public Form1()
    {
    InitializeComponent();
    }

    private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
    //Read static member field BEFORE we create our object.
    //Notice the use of the class name, not a variable.
    MessageBox.Show("We will now build a series " + Cyborg.SeriesID + " robot.");

    Cyborg MyRobot = new Cyborg();

    MyRobot.cyborgName = "John";
    MyRobot.cyborgAge = 34;

    MessageBox.Show("We created a " + MyRobot.cyborgAge + " year old robot named " + MyRobot.cyborgName + "."); 
 
    //You cannot refer to static members using an instance reference.
    //MessageBox.Show("A series " + MyRobot.SeriesID + " robot.");
  
    //Use a type name instead.
    MessageBox.Show("A series " + Cyborg.SeriesID + " robot.");    }
  }

  public class Cyborg : System.Object
  {
    private string serialNumber = "A100"; 

    public string cyborgName; 
    public int cyborgAge = 0;

    public static readonly int SeriesID = 100;
  }
}