Question

Unfortunately, the following is not possible in PHP:

class SpamHam {}
class EggBaz {
    function EggBaz($var) {
    }
}
class FooBar {

    public $fields = array( new SpamHam, new EggBaz(9) );

}

Java, for example, allows the following:

class FooBar {

    public static Object fields[];

    static {
        fields = new Object[] { new SpamHam(), new EggBaz(9) };
    }

}

Is there something similiar in PHP? I want to avoid constructions like this:

class FooBar {

    static $fields = null;

    static function initFields() {
        static::$fields = array( new SpamHam, new EggBaz(9) );
    }

}
FooBar::initFields();

Answer 1

In short: sorry, no.

Class properties can only be initialized with constant values, and there’s nothing like a static constructor.