What does “static” mean in C?

Question

I\'ve seen the word static used in different places in C code; is this like a static function/class in C# (where the implementation is shared across objects)?

Answer 1

If you declare this in a mytest.c file:

static int my_variable;

Then this variable can only be seen from this file. The variable cannot be exported anywhere else.

If you declare inside a function the value of the variable will keep its value each time the function is called.

A static function cannot be exported from outside the file. So in a *.c file, you are hiding the functions and the variables if you declare them static.