Re: PHP 4 to 5 class issues involving static methods and $this

Chris wrote:

I have a class where I need to be able to use the methods as static methods as well as using them inside an initialized class. Here's an example of what I need to do: class my_class {

    var $elements = array(); // holds all of my elements

    function format_string($string) {
        // format the string...
        return $this->elements[] = $string;
    }

    function show_all() {
        return implode("\n", $this->elements);
    }

} This worked fine in PHP 4. It silently ignored the $this->elements[] assignment in statically called methods and just returned my formatted string without any fuss. However, in PHP 5, I understand that I'm now required to declare the method format_string as public static if I want to just call my_class::format_string(), and if I want to use $elements inside a static method, it also requires being declared as static. I also understand that I can't use $this inside a statically called method. I've tried these things, but they don't seem to help. How can I rewrite my class for PHP 5 to emulate the functionality I had in PHP 4 in an error free way?

<?php abstract class static_my_class {

    public static function format_string($string) {
    }

} class my_class {

    var $elements = array();
    public function __call($method, $args) {
        try {
            $rm = new ReflectionMethod('static_my_class', $method);
            return $this->elements[] = $rm->invoke(null, $args);
        } catch (ReflectionException $e) {}
    }

} static_my_class::format_string('a'); $a = new my_class; $a->format_string('a'); ?> Greg