CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#.netstaticstandardsaccess-modifiers
Alex Gordon
Alex Gordon

Reputation: 60691

"public static" vs "static public" - is there a difference?

sealed class PI
{
  public static float number;
  static PI()
  { number = 3.141592653F; }
  static public float val()
  { return number; }
}

  1. What's the difference between public static and static public? Can they be used in any order?

  2. How would I use static public float val()?

    Does it get executed as soon as the class is initialized?

Upvotes: 13

Views: 10704

Answers (6)

Jesper Larsen-Ledet
Jesper Larsen-Ledet

Reputation: 6723

There's no difference. You're free to specify them in either order.
However, I find that most developers tend to use:

public static

and NOT static public.

Upvotes: 27

CodesInChaos
CodesInChaos

Reputation: 108790

About the ordering of modifiers

They can be used in any order. It's just a stylistic choice which one you use. I always use visibility first, and most other code does too.

About the second question:

static public float val()

This is just a static function. You call it with PI.val(). You just don't need an instance of the class to call it, but call it on the class directly. A static function does not receive a this reference, can't be virtual, it's just like a function in a non OOP language, except that it's using the class as namespace.

Upvotes: 9

Singleton
Singleton

Reputation: 3679

Well, it is just like the name of a Person =) Calling Tom Mike or Mike Tom, no difference.

Upvotes: 8

Robert Harvey
Robert Harvey

Reputation: 180777

To answer your second question, it should probably be written as 

public static class Pi
{
    private static float pi = 0;

    public static float GetValue()
    {
        if (pi == 0)
            pi = 3.141592653F;   // Expensive pi calculation goes here.

        return pi;
    }
}

And call it thusly:

float myPi = Pi.GetValue();

The reason for writing such a class is to cache the value, saving time on subsequent calls to the method. If the way to get pi required a lot of time to perform the calculations, you would only want to do the calculations once.

Upvotes: 5

McKay
McKay

Reputation: 12604

With regards to the second question: The method is available without an instance of a class, it could be called thusly:

PI.val();

Because the class only has static members, the class should probably be a static class, and then it could never get initialized.

Upvotes: 4

JaredPar
JaredPar

Reputation: 754585

There is no difference. Their order is not important with respect to each other

Upvotes: 7

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