Characteristics of static member variable are: i) It is initialized to zero when the first object of its class is created. No other initialization is permitted. ii) Only one copy of that member is created for the entire class and is shared by all the objects of that class, no matter how many objects are created. iii) It is visible only within the class, but its lifetime is the entire program. iv) Static variables are normally used to maintain values common for all objects.
Characteristics of Static member function are: i)A static member function can only have access to other static data members and functions declared in the same class. ii)A static member function can be called using the class name with a scope resolution operator instead of object name as follows: class_name::function_name;