The main characteristics of static functions are as follows: It is without the a “this” pointer. This is because it has no object address and hence “this” pointer is not passed as an internal parameter to the same. Also it can can be invoked even before creation of objects using scope resolution operator. It can't directly access the non-static members of its class. It can't be declared const, volatile or virtual. It doesn't need to be invoked through an object of its class, although for convenience, it may.