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19 years ago
Some interesting behavior (tested with PHP5), using the static-scope-keyword inside of class-methods.

<?php

class sample_class
{
  public function func_having_static_var($x = NULL)
  {
    static $var = 0;
    if ($x === NULL)
    { return $var; }
    $var = $x;
  }
}

$a = new sample_class();
$b = new sample_class();

echo $a->func_having_static_var()."\n";
echo $b->func_having_static_var()."\n";
// this will output (as expected):
//  0
//  0

$a->func_having_static_var(3);

echo $a->func_having_static_var()."\n";
echo $b->func_having_static_var()."\n";
// this will output:
//  3
//  3
// maybe you expected:
//  3
//  0

?>

One could expect "3 0" to be outputted, as you might think that $a->func_having_static_var(3); only alters the value of the static $var of the function "in" $a - but as the name says, these are class-methods. Having an object is just a collection of properties, the functions remain at the class. So if you declare a variable as static inside a function, it's static for the whole class and all of its instances, not for each object.

Maybe it's senseless to post that.. cause if you want to have the behaviour that I expected, you can simply use a variable of the object itself:

<?php
class sample_class
{ protected $var = 0; 
  function func($x = NULL)
  { $this->var = $x; }
} ?>

I believe that all normal-thinking people would never even try to make this work with the static-keyword, for those who try (like me), this note maybe helpfull.
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