Question

Using PHP 5.3+ and having something equal to the following I get the output of ‘C’ instead of ‘B’:

class A
{
    public static function doSomething()
    {
        echo get_called_class();
    }
}

class B extends A
{
    public static function doMore()
    {
        self::doSomething();
    }
}

class C extends B {}

C::doMore();

If I had used static::doSomething() that would be the expected result, but when using self::doSomething() I expect this method to get called in the scope of B because it’s where the ‘self’ is defined and not the late static binding.

How is that explained and how do I get ‘B’ in the doSomething() method?

Thanks in advance, JS

Answer 1

The issue here is late static binding. The get_called_class() function will use late static binding to return the class name, __CLASS__ will use late static binding if called using static::, but not when used with $this-> or self::. I don’t know of a way to get it to return B short of having the echo within B instead of A. It sounds like this would be an ideal use of traits if you were using PHP 5.4.

Example:

class A
{   
    public static function doSomething()
    {   
        echo __CLASS__;
    }
}

class B extends A
{   
    public static function doMore()
    {   
        self::doSomething();
    }
}

class C extends B {}

C::doMore();

This returns A instead of C.