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I was wondering about when does a static variable(in a class) come into picture(initialized)? Is it after the instance constructor called for the first time or after the class loads? When does a class loading occur?
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In C, static variables can only be initialized using constant literals. For example, following program fails in compilation. If we change the program to following, then it works without any error.
A static variable in a block is initialized only one time, prior to program execution, whereas an auto variable that has an initializer is initialized every time it comes into existence. A static object of class type will use the default constructor if you do not initialize it.
3) Static variables (like global variables) are initialized as 0 if not initialized explicitly.
Global (namespace) variables or static class members 1 live for the entire execution of the program: they must be initialized before main() is run and destroyed after execution finishes.
Oh, that is complex. It depends on whether the beforefieldinit flag is set, which in turn (in C#) depends on whether there is a static constructor. And worse; in .NET 4 I believe the behaviour changed to make it more "lazy" than it used to be.
Frankly, I wouldn't code to any specific behaviour here; simply: static fields will be initialized before you try to use them, as long as you use regular code to access them.
Jon Skeet has a good write-up on this here and here
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