OOP - instance vs static ???

[spires]

Hi

 

I'm just learning OOP, and can't seem to get me head around why you would choose to use a static variable over

creating a new instance. They both do the same thing (return a value), so why use one over the other?

 

Does it make the code cleaner, quicker etc?

 

Thanks

[Mchl]

static variables are common for all object of given class. Instance variables are not (each object has it's own.. instance of such variable).

 

You can use static variables for example to keep counter of how many objects of given class have been created.