Question

Below code works fine:

<?php session_start();

   $_SESSION['color'] = 'blue'; 

   class utilities
   {
            public static $color;

        function display()
            {
                echo utilities::$color = $_SESSION['color'];
            }

   }
   utilities::display(); ?>

This is what I want but doesn’t work:

<?php session_start();

$_SESSION['color'] = 'blue'; 

class utilities  {  
     public static $color = $_SESSION['color']; //see here

     function display()     
     {      
         echo utilities::$color;    
     }   } utilities::display(); ?>

I get this error: Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_VARIABLE in C:\Inetpub\vhosts\morsemfgco.com\httpdocs\secure2\scrap\class.php on line 7

Php doesn’t like session variables being stored outside of functions. Why? Is it a syntax problem or what? I don’t want to have to instantiate objects because for just calling utility functions and I need a few session variables to be stored globally. I do not want to call a init() function to store the global session variables every time I run a function either. Solutions?

Answer 1

From the PHP manual:-

Like any other PHP static variable,
static properties may only be
initialized using a literal or
constant; expressions are not allowed.
So while you may initialize a static
property to an integer or array (for
instance), you may not initialize it
to another variable, to a function
return value, or to an object.

You say that you need your session variables to be stored globally? They are $_SESSION is what is known as a “super global”

<?php

class utilities {
public static $color = $_SESSION['color']; //see here

 function display()   
 {      
     echo $_SESSION['color'];  
 }
}

utilities::display(); ?>