Re: Static vs. Instantiated Objects in PHP

statically calling a method is faster than init'ing an object then calling a method. static methods (as opposed to functions in the global space) automatically give a sort of namespacing, and a way to organise code (although that rather cosmetic). methods that are defined as static do not define $this in their function scope, ever. additionally classes in php5 can have static (therefore with class scope) variables - which make static methods that much ore interesting as a problem solving mechanism (imho) e.g. <?php class Test { static private $instance; static function getInst() { if (!isset(self::$instance)) { self::$instance = new self; } return self::$instance; } } ?> oh look I just implemented a singleton pattern. a rather simple example but maybe it gives you some ideas. Mark Baldwin wrote:

Greetings all, Does anyone know how static objects work behind the scenes in PHP5? More specifically, is there a benefit to declaring an object and its methods as static vs the more traditional OO way of instantiating an object and then calling methods through the -> operator? For example if I have: class Example {

    public static function doSomething() {
        /* doing something here */
    }

} and class Example {

    private __construct() {
        /* constructing here */
    }   
    public function doSomething() {
        /* doing something here */
    }

} Is it more/less/equally efficient for the engine and parser to do: $result = Example::doSomething(); or $example = new Example(); $result = $example->doSomething(); Thanks in advance, Mark