Question

Recently I have been told that static class/methods are evil.

Take for example my class Logger:

class Logger{
   private static $logs = array();
   public static function add($msg){
      self::$logs[]=$msg;
   }

   public static function echo(){
       print_r(self::$logs);
   }
}

I can use whenever i want in my appliaction like this:

Logger::add('My log 1');

But reading this developers:

• http://misko.hevery.com/2008/12/15/static-methods-are-death-to-testability/

That Logger class doesn’t seem so good.

So: Can I use it statically or I should avoid it at any cost?

Answer 1

Logging classes are the exception.

Since they rarely contain much logic, you don’t have the same testing concerns.

Logging is a perfect example of a GOOD place to use static classes.

Think of your alternatives:

• A global instance of a logging object?
• A singleton logging object?
• Pass the logging object around to every single method/class (via in a constructor)?

The above are much worse than using static for logging.