You cannot have static variables declared inside a method

In this example we shall show you the reason why you cannot have static variables declared inside a method. The steps of the example are described below:

• We have a class, StaticVar that consists of a process() method, where it sets a static int variable and prints it.
• We make a new instance of the StaticVar in a main() method and call its process() method.
• A java.lang.Error occurs, and the unresolved compilation problem is that the static modifier is not permitted,

as described in the code snippet below.  

package futuretest;

public class StaticVar {
    
  public static void main(String[] argv) {
    StaticVar t = new StaticVar();
    t.process();
  }
  
  void process() {
    static int a = 42;
// EXPECT COMPILE ERROR
    System.out.println("Process: " + a);
  }
}

  
This was an example of explaining why you cannot have static variables declared inside a method in Java.