An object can contain static fields: these fields are global to the object type, and act like global variables, but are known only as part of the object1. They can be referenced from within the objects methods, but can also be referenced from outside the object by providing the fully qualified name.
For instance, the output of the following program:
will be the following
Note that the last line of code references the object type itself (cl), and not an instance of the object (cl1 or cl2).
1Older versions of the compiler required a directive for this to work: the {$STATIC ON} directive