What is the exact meaning of static fields in Java?

Question

I would like to share an object between various instances of objects of the same class.

Conceptually, while my program is running, all the objects of class A access

Answer 1

Assuming everything is in the same class loader, then why not use the monostate pattern to do this?

Your shared static is hidden in the monostate:

  public class Monostate {

      private static String str = "Default";

      public String getString() {
          return str;
      }

      public void setString(String s) {
          str = s;
      }
  }

Then you are free to create as many instances of the monostate as you like, but they all share the same underlying object due to the static reference.

   Monostate mono = new Monostate();
   mono.setString("Fred");
   System.out.println(mono.getString());