What is a “static” function in C?

Question

The question was about plain c functions, not c++ static methods, as clarified in comments.

I understand what a static variable is, but wha

Answer 1

There are two uses for the keyword static when it comes to functions in C++.

The first is to mark the function as having internal linkage so it cannot be referenced in other translation units. This usage is deprecated in C++. Unnamed namespaces are preferred for this usage.

// inside some .cpp file:

static void foo();    // old "C" way of having internal linkage

// C++ way:
namespace
{
   void this_function_has_internal_linkage()
   {
      // ...
   }
}

The second usage is in the context of a class. If a class has a static member function, that means the function is a member of the class (and has the usual access to other members), but it doesn't need to be invoked through a particular object. In other words, inside that function, there is no "this" pointer.