Question

How can i check to see if a static class has been declared? ex Given the class

class bob {     function yippie() {         echo 'skippie';     } } 

later in code how do i check:

if(is_a_valid_static_object(bob)) {     bob::yippie(); } 

so i don’t get: Fatal error: Class ‘bob’ not found in file.php on line 3

Answer 1

You can also check for existence of a specific method, even without instantiating the class

echo method_exists( bob, 'yippie' ) ? 'yes' : 'no'; 

If you want to go one step further and verify that "yippie" is actually static, use the Reflection API (PHP5 only)

try {     $method = new ReflectionMethod( 'bob::yippie' );     if ( $method->isStatic() )     {         // verified that bob::yippie is defined AND static, proceed     } } catch ( ReflectionException $e ) {     //  method does not exist     echo $e->getMessage(); } 

or, you could combine the two approaches

if ( method_exists( bob, 'yippie' ) ) {     $method = new ReflectionMethod( 'bob::yippie' );     if ( $method->isStatic() )     {         // verified that bob::yippie is defined AND static, proceed     } }