Static virtual

[imanuelg]

Hello,

Can a static member function be virtual?

I believe not. But can someone please explain why ?

Thanks,

Imanuel.

[Danny]

of course, it can not. The reason is simple: a virtual member function must take an implicit 'this' argument so that the compiler and runtime libraries can resolve the call properly. However, since static member functions don't take a this argument, they can't be virtual. Notice that you can call a static member without even instantiating an object:

struct A
{
static f();
};

A::f(); //fine

As a rule, virtual member functions are called for a specific OBJECT. Static member functions are called for a CLASS and therefore can only access static data members.