Can I define a static method which I can call directly on the class instance? e.g., MyClass.the_static_method()

In C#, you cannot directly call a static method on an instance of the class. Static methods are associated with the class itself rather than instances of the class. You need to call static methods using the class name, not an instance.

Here's an example to illustrate this:

csharp

using System;

class MyClass
{
    public static void StaticMethod()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("This is a static method.");
    }
}

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        MyClass.StaticMethod(); // Correct way to call a static method

        MyClass instance = new MyClass();
        // The following line will result in a compile-time error
        // instance.StaticMethod(); // Error: 'MyClass' does not contain a definition for 'StaticMethod'
    }
}

In this example, the StaticMethod is a static method of the MyClass class. You can call it using MyClass.StaticMethod(), but you cannot call it using an instance of the class like instance.StaticMethod().

Static methods are meant to be called using the class name to indicate that they are not associated with any particular instance and are independent of instance state.