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You already know how to create a field and property, like:

class Forest { private string definition; public string Definition { get { return definition; } set { definition = value; } } }

The definition of what a forest is applies to all Forest objects, not just one — there should only be one value for the whole class. This is a good use case for a static field/property.

To make a static field and property, just add static after the access modifier (public or private).

class Forest { private static string definition; public static string Definition { get { return definition; } set { definition = value; } } }

Remember that static means “associated with the class, not an instance”. Thus any static member is accessed from the class, not an instance:

static void Main(string[] args) { Console.WriteLine(Forest.Definition); }

If you tried to access a static member from an instance (like f.Definition) you would get an error like:

error CS0176: Static member 'Forest.Definition' cannot be accessed with an instance reference, qualify it with a type name instead

Instructions

1.

In the previous exercise we mentioned storing the count of all Forest objects. We’ll use a static field and property to store that. Define a private static field named forestsCreated.

2.

Define a public static property named ForestsCreated. Give it a public getter and private setter.

3.

In the first constructor, increment ForestsCreated. This will add 1 to the property every time an object is constructed.

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