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

A static function is one that can be called on the class itself, as opposed to an instance of the class.

For example a non-static would be:

Person* tom = new Person();
tom->setName("Tom");

This method works on an instance of the class, not the class itself. However you can have a static method that can work without having an instance. This is sometimes used in the Factory pattern:

Person* tom = Person::createNewPerson();