Question

I want to create a static class in PHP and have it behave like it does in C#, so

1. Constructor is automatically called on the first call to the class
2. No instantiation required

Something of this sort…

static class Hello {     private static $greeting = 'Hello';      private __construct() {         $greeting .= ' There!';     }      public static greet(){         echo $greeting;     } }  Hello::greet(); // Hello There! 

Answer 1

You can have static classes in PHP but they don’t call the constructor automatically (if you try and call self::__construct() you’ll get an error).

Therefore you’d have to create an initialize() function and call it in each method:

<?php  class Hello {     private static $greeting = 'Hello';     private static $initialized = false;      private static function initialize()     {         if (self::$initialized)             return;          self::$greeting .= ' There!';         self::$initialized = true;     }      public static function greet()     {         self::initialize();         echo self::$greeting;     } }  Hello::greet(); // Hello There!   ?>