Question

I am trying to access a static variable within a class by using a variable class name. I’m aware that in order to access a function within the class, you use call_user_func():

class foo {     function bar() { echo 'hi'; } }  $class = 'foo'; call_user_func(array($class, 'bar')); // prints hi 

However, this does not work when trying to access a static variable within the class:

class foo {     public static $bar = 'hi'; }  $class = 'foo'; call_user_func(array($class, 'bar')); // nothing echo $foo::$bar; // invalid 

How do I get at this variable? Is it even possible? I have a bad feeling this is only available in PHP 5.3 going forward and I’m running PHP 5.2.6.

Answer 1

You can use reflection to do this. Create a ReflectionClass object given the classname, and then use the getStaticPropertyValue method to get the static variable value.

class Demo {     public static $foo = 42; }  $class = new ReflectionClass('Demo'); $value=$class->getStaticPropertyValue('foo'); var_dump($value);