Bug #52396 [NEW]: Acessing a class within a static class

From: Operating system: Windows 7 PHP version: 5.3.2 Package: Class/Object related Bug Type: Bug Bug description:Acessing a class within a static class Description: ------------ It is currently not possible to access a class that is instantiated within another class that is instantiated within a static object variable. Using the example below I would expect this line of code to function correctly: (where self is Foo) self::$bar->test->hello(); however this isn't the case. A getter must be created in the bar() class to get the test class object variable. I.e. getTest(). The above line can then be re-written as : self::$bar->getTest()->hello(); this works correctly. In finding this solution I also tried the same concept in another OO language (Java). I copied the code as per below and altered the syntax. the line above became: bar.test.hello(); which worked ok. For this reason, as the operation discussed here is a standard OO concept, it could be classed as a bug within PHP. The attached test script demonstrates the getTest() workaround. commented out above this line are numerous error messages that I encountered when trying to access the test class. Many Thanks Test script: --------------- <?php echo "<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN\" \"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd\"> <html xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml\" lang=\"en\" xml:lang=\"en\"> <head> <title>XHTML-document </title> </head> <body>"; new foo(); echo"</body> </html>"; class foo { public static $bar; public static $foo2; public function __construct() { echo"<code>construct foo</code>"; echo"<p>create static instance of bar</p>"; self::$bar = new bar(); echo"<p>call hello() in bar class</p>"; self::$bar->hello(); echo"<p>call hello() in test class from Foo class through bar class</p>"; //N.B. The following methods failed. However there is one solution... //self::$bar->$test->hello(); //Notice: Undefined variable: test in ... on line... //Fatal error: Cannot access empty property in ... on line... //self::$bar->test->hello(); //Notice: Undefined property: bar::$test in ... on... //Fatal error: Call to a member function hello() on a non-object in ... on... //self::$bar::$test->hello(); //Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM in ... on... //self::$bar::test->hello(); //Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM in ... on... //self::$bar->self::$test->hello(); //Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM in ... on... //self::$bar::self::$test->hello(); //Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM in ... on... self::$bar->getTest()->hello(); echo"<p>create static instance of foo2</p>"; self::$foo2 = new foo2(); } } class bar { //N.B. the class Test() can be instantiated as either a static or a normal variable //public static $test; public $test; public function __construct(){ echo "<code>construct bar</code>"; echo"<p>create static instance of test class in bar class </p>"; //self::$test = new test(); $this->test = new test(); } public function hello(){ echo"<code>class:foo function:hello()</code>"; } public function getTest(){ //echo"getanother"; //return self::$test; return $this->test; } } class test{ public function __construct(){ echo "<code>construct test</code>"; } public function hello(){ echo "<code>class:test function:hello()</code>"; } } class foo2 { public function __construct() { echo"<code>construct foo2</code>"; echo"<p>call hello() in foo2 class</p>"; foo::$bar->hello(); } public function hello(){ echo"class:foo2 function:hello"; } } ?> Expected result: ---------------- construct foo create static instance of bar construct bar create static instance of test class in bar class construct test call hello() in bar class class:foo function:hello() call hello() in test class from Foo class through bar class class:test function:hello() create static instance of foo2 construct foo2 call hello() in foo2 class class:foo function:hello() Actual result: -------------- same as above. the code demonstrates a work around to the problem. -- Edit bug report at http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=52396&edit=1 -- Try a snapshot (PHP 5.2): http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52396&r=trysnapshot52 Try a snapshot (PHP 5.3): http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52396&r=trysnapshot53 Try a snapshot (trunk): http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52396&r=trysnapshottrunk Fixed in SVN: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52396&r=fixed Fixed in SVN and need be documented: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52396&r=needdocs Fixed in release: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52396&r=alreadyfixed Need backtrace: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52396&r=needtrace Need Reproduce Script: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52396&r=needscript Try newer version: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52396&r=oldversion Not developer issue: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52396&r=support Expected behavior: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52396&r=notwrong Not enough info: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52396&r=notenoughinfo Submitted twice: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52396&r=submittedtwice register_globals: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52396&r=globals PHP 4 support discontinued: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52396&r=php4 Daylight Savings: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52396&r=dst IIS Stability: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52396&r=isapi Install GNU Sed: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52396&r=gnused Floating point limitations: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52396&r=float No Zend Extensions: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52396&r=nozend MySQL Configuration Error: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=52396&r=mysqlcfg