Question

i have this code:
protected $val = Zend_Registry::get('values');

Whenever I put this piece of code I get:
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '(', expecting ',' or ';' in ...

Why is it happening?

Answer 1

You cannot use a function call or other dynamic expression to initialize a class property. It can only be a constant or atomic value. If you need to initialize it with a function call, you must do this instead inside the constructor.

protected $val = NULL;

public function __construct() {
  $this->val = Zend_Registry::get('values');
}

From the docs:

This declaration may include an initialization, but this initialization must be a constant value–that is, it must be able to be evaluated at compile time and must not depend on run-time information in order to be evaluated.