Question

Instead of declaring each function as “static” in a class, is there any way that I can make a class itself “static”?

Answer 1

I’d say the best way to go is to prevent object instantiation through a private constructor and explicitly marking all methods as static. Although you have to be careful to mark all methods as static (which is the result of static classes not existing in PHP), the benefit of this method over the Singleton approach is that static methods are more efficient than their non-static counterparts. You probably also want your class marked as final, as most static classes are not designed to be extended anyway (and it is good practice to do so).

An example would be something like this:

final class PseudoStatic {

  /**
   * Prevent object instantiation
   */
  private function __construct() {}

  static public function method1() {
    ...
  }

  static public function method2() {
    ...
  }

  ...
}

Furthermore, the Singleton pattern is now considered a bad practice by some.