PHP Static Methods and Properties

Summary: in this tutorial, you will learn about PHP static methods and static properties and understand the differences between the  $this and self.

Introduction to PHP static methods and properties

So far, you have learned how to define a class that consists of methods and properties. To use the methods and properties of the class, you create an object and access these methods and properties via the object.

Since these methods and properties are bound to an instance of the class, they are called instance methods and properties.

PHP allows you to access the methods and properties in the context of a class rather than an object. Such methods and properties are class methods and properties.

Class methods and class properties are called static methods and properties.

Static methods

To define a static method, you place the static keyword in front of the function keyword as follows:

<?php

class MyClass
{
	public static function staticMethod()
	{
	}
}
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)

Since a static method is bound to a class, not an individual instance of the class, you cannot access $this inside the method. However, you can access a special variable called self. The self variable means the current class.

The following shows how to call a static method from the inside of the class:

self::staticMethod(arguments);Code language: PHP (php)

To call a static method from the outside of the class, you use the following syntax:

className::staticMethod(arguments)Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

For example:

MyClass::staticMethod()Code language: CSS (css)

The following example defines the HttpRequest class that has a static method uri() that returns the URI of the current HTTP request:

class HttpRequest
{
	public static function uri(): string
	{
		return strtolower($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
	}
}Code language: PHP (php)

The following calls the uri() static method of HttpRequest class:

echo HttpRequest::uri();Code language: PHP (php)

If the current HTTP request is https://www.phptutorial.net/php-static-method/, the uri() method will return /php-static-method/.

Static properties

To define a static property, you also use the static keyword:

public static $staticProperty;Code language: PHP (php)

For example:

class MyClass
{
	public static $staticProperty;

	public static function staticMethod()
	{
	}
}Code language: PHP (php)

To access a public static property outside of the class, you also use the class name with the :: operator:

MyClass::$staticProperty;Code language: PHP (php)

Like the static methods, to access static properties from within the class, you use the self instead of  $this as follows:

self::staticPropertyCode language: PHP (php)

self vs. $this

The following table illustrates the differences between the self and $this:

PHP static methods and properties example

Suppose that you want to create an App class for your web application. And the App class should have one and only one instance during the lifecycle of the application. In other words, the App should be a singleton.

The following illustrates how to define the App class by using the static methods and properties:

<?php

class App
{
	private static $app = null;

	private function __construct()
	{
	}

	public static function get() : App
	{
		if (!self::$app) {
			self::$app = new App();
		}

		return self::$app;
	}

	public function bootstrap(): void
	{
		echo 'App is bootstrapping...';
	}
}Code language: HTML, XML (xml)

How it works:

First, define a static property called $app and initialize its value to null:

private static $app = null;Code language: PHP (php)

Second, make the constructor private so that the class cannot be instantiated from the outside:

private function __construct()
{
}Code language: PHP (php)

Third, define a static method called get() that returns an instance of the App class:

public static function get() : App
{
	if (!self::$app) {
		self::$app = new App();
	}

	return self::$app;
}Code language: PHP (php)

The get() method creates an instance of the App if it has not been created, otherwise, it just simply returns the App’s instance. Notice that the get() method uses the self to access the $app static property.

Fourth, the bootstrap() method is just for demonstration purposes. In practice, you can place the code that bootstraps the application in this method.

The following shows how to use the App class:

<?php

$app = App::get();
$app->bootstrap();Code language: HTML, XML (xml)

In this code, we called the get() static method from the App class and invoked the bootstrap() method of the App‘s instance.

Summary

• Static methods and properties are bound to a class, not individual objects of the class.
• Use the static keyword to define static methods and properties.
• Use the self keyword to access static methods and properties within the class.