Question

I have a class with a static method. There is an array to check that a string argument passed is a member of a set. But, with the static method, I can’t reference the class property in an uninstantiated class, nor can I have an array as a class constant.

I suppose I could hard code the array in the static method, but then if I need to change it, I’d have to remember to change it in two places. I’d like to avoid this.

Answer 1

You can create a private static function that will create the array on demand and return it:

class YourClass {
    private static $values = NULL;
    private static function values() {
        if (self::$values === NULL) {
            self::$values = array(
                'value1',
                'value2',
                'value3',
            );
        }
        return self::$values;
    }
}