Question

I have this code:

private static $dates = array(   'start' => mktime( 0,  0,  0,  7, 30, 2009),  // Start date   'end'   => mktime( 0,  0,  0,  8,  2, 2009),  // End date   'close' => mktime(23, 59, 59,  7, 20, 2009),  // Date when registration closes   'early' => mktime( 0,  0,  0,  3, 19, 2009),  // Date when early bird discount ends ); 

Which gives me the following error:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ‘(‘, expecting ‘)’ in /home/user/Sites/site/registration/inc/registration.class.inc on line 19

So, I guess I am doing something wrong… but how can I do this if not like that? If I change the mktime stuff with regular strings, it works. So I know that I can do it sort of like that..

Anyone have some pointers?

Answer 1

PHP can’t parse non-trivial expressions in initializers.

I prefer to work around this by adding code right after definition of the class:

class Foo {   static $bar; } Foo::$bar = array(…); 

or

class Foo {   private static $bar;   static function init()   {     self::$bar = array(…);   } } Foo::init(); 

---

PHP 5.6 can handle some expressions now.

/* For Abstract classes */ abstract class Foo{     private static function bar(){         static $bar = null;         if ($bar == null)             bar = array(...);         return $bar;     }     /* use where necessary */     self::bar(); }