While it is possible to access static
members from a class instance, it’s bad form, and considered by most to be misleading
because it implies to the readers of your code that there’s an instance of the member per class instance.
public class A { public static int counter = 0; } public class B { private A first = new A(); private A second = new A(); public void runUpTheCount() { first.counter ++; // Noncompliant second.counter ++; // Noncompliant. A.counter is now 2, which is perhaps contrary to expectations } }
public class A { public static int counter = 0; } public class B { private A first = new A(); private A second = new A(); public void runUpTheCount() { A.counter ++; // Compliant A.counter ++; // Compliant } }