c# - Static vs non-static class members

Question

I'm new to c sharp and programming generally. I have a quick question - what is best practise with regards to static/non static variables.

I have a variable,private int x, which belongs to class y. To access this variable, i need to reference y. If x was static however, i can access this variable with no references to y.

Which is the best way to go, in a situation whereby several methods within the class y will be referencing this value ?

Hope this makes sense, and my question isn't too basic !

Many thanks

Answer 1

You need to think about static variables as belonging to the class, not to instances of the class.

If, in all instances of the class this variable should be identical, use a static variable.

If not, use an instance variable.

In general having public static variables is bad practice - it is a shared global resource and if you change it you need to synchronize access to it. Having global state is something you want to avoid as much as possible.