PHP Calling A Method Statically; Even Though Its Not Defined As Static

Question

How is this working? Shouldn't this throw an error, since I am trying to call a non static method statically? Basically, I've never instantiated an object of type something.

class Something {
   public function helloworld() {
       echo 'hello world';
   }
}

Something::helloworld();

possible duplicate of PHP: call to an instance method via ClassName::method syntax, results in a static call? — Gordon
– Gordon, Commented Oct 1, 2011 at 11:12

Decent Dabbler · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-01 08:14:01Z

1

Put this at the top of your script:

error_reporting( E_ALL | E_STRICT ); // E_STRICT is important here
ini_set( 'display_errors', true );

... and see what happens then:

Strict Standards: Non-static method Something::helloworld() should not be called statically in [...]

Admittedly, it more of a notice than an error though. Your script will happily continue to run.

answered Oct 1, 2011 at 8:14

Decent Dabbler

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Comments

Linus Kleen · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-01 08:06:51Z

0

It would only give you an error, if within helloworld() you'd be using $this.

It's a type of PHP "WTF" resulting from missing specs that allows you to statically invoke a function not actually declared static.

answered Oct 1, 2011 at 8:06

Linus Kleen

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3 Comments

hakre Over a year ago

IIRC, it's not a missing spec, it's just backwards compatibility to PHP 4.

Linus Kleen Over a year ago

...for which there are no specs.

hakre Over a year ago

Well, it's not written word by word, but if you read the PHP 5 docs it's clearly written that unspecified is like public. And in PHP 4 public functions could be statically called. So actually it's documented, even inside the static chapter. See as well: php.syntaxerrors.info/… - Just FYI, normally you should not care that much about PHP 4 any longer.

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