Learn

You already know how to create an instance method, like:

class Forest
{
  private string definition;
  public void Define()    
  {
    Console.WriteLine(definition);
  }
}

This behavior (printing a general definition) isn’t specific to any one instance — it applies to the class itself, so it should be made static.

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

class Forest
{
  private static string definition;
  public static void Define()
  { 
    Console.WriteLine(definition); 
  }
}

Notice that we added static to both the field definition and method Define().

This is because a static method can only access other static members. It cannot access instance members:

class Forest
{
  private string definition;
  public static void Define()
  { 
    // Throws error because definition is not static
    Console.WriteLine(definition); 
  }
}

Otherwise, static methods work like any other method.

Instructions

Earlier we mentioned storing an explanation of forests in general. We’ll use a field and property to define the explanation. Define a private static string field named treeFacts.

Define a public static property named TreeFacts with just a getter (no setter).

Define a public static method name PrintTreeFacts() that writes the value of TreeFacts to the console.

Note that TreeFacts is never assigned a value: we’ll resolve that in the next exercise.

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