This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
4.5 Static Class Design
A static class is defined as a class that contains only static members (of course besides the instance members inherited from System.Object and possibly a private constructor). Some languages provide built-in support for static classes. In C# 2.0, when a class is declared to be static, it is sealed, abstract, and no instance members can be overridden or declared.
public static class File {
}
If your language does not have built-in support for static classes, you can declare such classes manually as in the following C++ example:
public class File abstract sealed {
}
Static classes are a compromise between pure object-oriented design and simplicity. They are commonly used to provide shortcuts to other operations (such as System.IO.File), or functionality for which a full object-oriented wrapper is unwarranted (such as System.Environment).