Accessing a global static variable from another class

Question

I am working with code that has a global static variable (which is an object) and I need access to it from another class. I have always avoided global variables/functions in general so in this situation I am not sure how to go about it properly.

Just to clear my understand of things, in a global static variable has internal linkage, which means that any source file that includes this particular header will get its own copy of the variable?

EDIT: What I have tried so far is making a function which returns the address of the variable. Unfortunately, that does not seem to be working.

// names were changed but the code is as follows. 
// There is of course other code in the header
namespace SomeNameSpace
{
    static anArray<someObject> variable;
}

NOTE: I cannot change the code in the header where the global static variable is declared. I can add functions but I should try to avoid it if I can.

Answer 1

When you declare in you header file

static int g_foo;

and include this header file in multiple .cpp files, you get multiple instances one for each .cpp file that includes the header. These instances does not interfere at all. You can't communicate between the compilation units with these variables. Each instance is local to the compilation unit.

When you declare

class Foo
{
    public:
        static int bar;
};

then you get one static member that must be defined in one .cpp file as int Foo::bar; The accessibility is defined as public in this case.