Question

I slightly remember that autoload worked with the new statement. Now how about when I have several utility classes and I want to autoload these? And I only use static methods?

Like:

MathGuru::calculateFoo($bar);

Would autoload load MathGuru here? Or must I include it manually?

Answer 1

The autoloading mechanism works exactly the same way with static classes that it does with non-static one :

• The autoload function/method you registered will be called
• It’ll receive the name of the class
• And it’ll have to require/include the necessary PHP code

Actually, the autoloader doesn’t even have to “know” if it is called to load a static or a dynamic class, as its role is to load the PHP code that contains the class’ definition — and not instantiate it or anything.