What is the difference between a static and const variable?

Question

Can someone explain the difference between a static and const variable?

Answer 1

Static variables in the context of a class are shared between all instances of a class.

In a function, it remains a persistent variable, so you could for instance count the number of times a function has been called.

When used outside of a function or class, it ensures the variable can only be used by code in that specific file, and nowhere else.

Constant variables however are prevented from changing. A common use of const and static together is within a class definition to provide some sort of constant.

class myClass {
public:
     static const int TOTAL_NUMBER = 5;
     // some public stuff
private:
     // some stuff
};