Question

I am curious as to why using the scope resolution operator on class variables causes a fatal php error, and if there is a way around it.

For example:

<?php
class StaticTest
{
    public static function output()
    {
        echo "Output called<br />";
    }
}
Class Test
{
    public $reference;

    public function __construct()
    {
        $this -> reference = new StaticTest;
    }

}

$static_test = new StaticTest;
$static_test::output(); //works as intended

$test = new Test;
$test -> reference::output(); //Unexpcted T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM

$direct_reference = $test -> reference;
$direct_reference::output(); //works, closest solution i have found, but requires the extra line of code / variable
?>

Answer 1

If your only concern is the number of lines of code and the extra variable, here’s how you can do it in one line, without creating any variables:

call_user_func(array(get_class($test->reference), 'output'));

Which, I believe, is equivalent to:

$direct_reference = $test->reference;
$direct_reference::output();