Question

I have the following code (like, for real, this is my real code) :

<?php
class Foobar
{
  public static function foo()
  {
    exit('foo');
  }
}

When I run $foobar = new FooBar; $foobar->foo() it displays foo.

Why would PHP try to use a static method in an object context ? Is there a way to avoid this ?

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Ok you guys didn’t get my problem : I know the differences between static and non static methods and how to call them. That’s my whole point, if I call $foobar->foo(), why does PHP tries to run a static method ?

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Note : I run PHP 5.4.4, error reporting to E_ALL.

Answer 1

To call a static method, you don’t use:

$foobar = new FooBar;
$foobar->foo()

You call

FooBar::foo();

The PHP manual says…

Declaring class properties or methods as static makes them accessible
without needing an instantiation of the class. A property declared as
static can not be accessed with an instantiated class object (though a
static method can).

This is why you are able to call the method on an instance, even though that is not what you intended to do.

Whether or not you call a static method statically or on an instance, you cannot access $this in a static method.

http://php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.static.php

You can check to see if you are in a static context, although I would question whether this is overkill…

class Foobar
{
  public static function foo()
  {
    $backtrace = debug_backtrace();
    if ($backtrace[1]['type'] == '::') {
      exit('foo');
    }
  }
}

One additional note – I believe that the method is always executed in a static context, even if it is called on an instance. I’m happy to be corrected on this if I’m wrong though.