Thread: Why can I have static int a, but not int a?

Why does this work:

public class demo {
	static int a;
	public static void main(String args[]) {		
		System.out.println(a);				
	}
 
}

But this does not:

public class demo {
	int a;
	public static void main(String args[]) {		
		System.out.println(a);				
	}
 
}

And this one also does not:

public class demo {
 
	public static void main(String args[]) {
	static int a;		
		System.out.println(a);				
	}
 
}

In the second case, the "a" variable is not static. Just a package-private instance variable. Instance variables cannot be accessed from a static scope.
In the third case, you cannot use static keyword inside a method.
Please note, static variables and methods are related to the class and not the instance.