error CS0118

[darwen]

Actually it does have the same effect as the static keyword in classes in C++. However do you know what effect it has on methods in C++ ? I'm sorry but it doesn't look likely from your questions above.

A static declaration in a class means that whatever it is applied to is only created once, and without a class instance.

Therefore this below will give you exactly the same problem as you're seeing above :

class MyClass
{
    private int m_nValue = 0;

    // this is a method which operates on the class instance.
    public void Function()
    {
        StaticFunction();
    }

    // this is not attached to an instance
    static public void StaticFunction()
    {
        m_nValue = 0; // this fails because there is no class instance.

        // here 'this' has no meaning as the method isnt a part of an instance of the class
    }
}

However, static methods and member variables can be accessed without a class instance :

MyClass.StaticFunction();
// this is ok because it's a static method.

MyClass.Function();
// this isn't ok because it needs an instance of the class

MyClass myClass = new MyClass();
myClass.Function(); // this is ok

Hope this helps. It's not a great explanation : I suggest you read up on statics in MSDN because they are tremendously useful - especially in C# where you can do things like this :

// simple singleton
public sealed class MyClass
{
   // instansiated on first call to MyClass
   static private MyClass m_theClass = new MyClass;

   static public MyClass Singleton
   {
        get
        {
            return m_theClass;
        }
   }
 
   // ensures you can't 'new' the class  
   private MyClass()
   {
   }
}

Darwen.