#282 – Creating Private Static Methods

Like instance methods, static methods can be public or private.  A private static method is a method that works with the class’ static data, but is not visible from outside the class.

Below is an example of a private static method.  Note that it’s making use of some public static data.  It could also work with private static data.

        // Static property -- one value for all dogs
        public static string Creed { get; set; }

        // Public static method, to recite our creed
        public static void RepeatYourCreed(int numRepeats)
        {
            string creed = FormatTheCreed();

            for (int i = 0; i < numRepeats; i++)
                Console.WriteLine(creed);
        }

        // Private method to format our Dog creed
        private static string FormatTheCreed()
        {
            return string.Format("As dogs, we believe: {0}", Dog.Creed);
        }

We can call the public static method that makes use of this private method:

            // Set static property
            Dog.Creed = "We serve man";

            // Call static method
            Dog.RepeatYourCreed(3);