Can you explain what a static method is in object-oriented programming?

A static method is a class method that belongs to the class itself rather than to any specific instance of the class. It can be called without creating an instance of the class. In C#, static methods are declared with the static keyword.

Features of static methods:

• They do not have access to instance (non-static) fields and methods of the class.
• They can be used for operations that do not depend on instance data.

Example:

class Calculator
{
    public static int Add(int a, int b)
    {
        return a + b;
    }
}

// Call static method without creating an object
int result = Calculator.Add(5, 3);