Static Types (Part 3/3): Initializing Static Members with a Static Constructor

The final topic I want to discuss regarding Static Types is how to initialize static members using a static constructor.

Static constructor demonstration

To demonstrate this concept, I’ve created a simple script featuring a Student class that defines a student and a Test class used to execute the script.

public class Student
{
    public int studentID;
    public string firstName, lastName;
    public string major;

    public static string university;

    public Student()
    {
        Debug.Log("Instance member initialized");
    }

    static Student()
    {
        university = "Cape Breton University";
        Debug.Log("Intialized static member");
    }
}

public class Test : MonoBehaviour
{
    private void Start()
    {
        Student student1 = new Student();
        Student student2 = new Student();
        Student student3 = new Student();
    }
}

Each student object will have its own ID, first and last name, and major (instance members), but they will share a single university (static member). Upon running the script, the static constructor should execute first and only once, followed by the non-static constructor, which will execute three times.

And here’s the result: