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Request #67347 Access to static class properties inconsistent
Submitted: 2014-05-27 19:42 UTC Modified: 2014-05-28 15:00 UTC
From: fleshgrinder at gmx dot at Assigned:
Status: Not a bug Package: *General Issues
PHP Version: 5.6.0beta3 OS: Debian Wheezy
Private report: No CVE-ID: None
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 [2014-05-27 19:42 UTC] fleshgrinder at gmx dot at 
Description:
------------
Accessing static properties is inconsistent and doesn't make much sense.

Test script:
---------------
class Foo {

  public static $foo = "foo";

}

class Bar {

  public $foo;

  public function __construct() {
    $this->foo = new Foo();
  }

}


Expected result:
----------------
Either $foo::$foo to result in some kind of ERROR or WARNING or $bar->foo::$foo has to work as well. Otherwise it's not consistent.

Actual result:
--------------
$foo = new Foo();

echo $foo::$foo; // Works and prints 'foo'
echo $foo->foo;  // STRICT WARNING
echo $foo->$foo; // FATAL ERROR

$bar = new Bar();

echo $bar->foo::$foo; // PARSE ERROR
echo $bar->foo->foo;  // STRICT WARNING
echo $bar->foo->$foo; // FATAL ERROR

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 [2014-05-27 19:45 UTC] fleshgrinder at gmx dot at 
Note that the following works:

$bar = new Bar();
$foo = $bar->foo;
echo $foo::$foo;  // Prints 'foo'
 [2014-05-28 15:00 UTC] bwoebi@php.net
-Status: Open +Status: Not a bug
 [2014-05-28 15:00 UTC] bwoebi@php.net 
Thank you for taking the time to write to us, but this is not
a bug. Please double-check the documentation available at
http://www.php.net/manual/ and the instructions on how to report
a bug at http://bugs.php.net/how-to-report.php

$foo::$foo is access of a static property on a dynamic class name. Pretty clear what it should mean.

But $bar->foo::$foo isn't implemented to avoid confusion:
is it now like $a = $bar->foo; $a::$foo; or like $a = foo::$foo; $bar->$a; ?

That's why it was preferred to not implement it in the first place.
 [2014-05-29 09:32 UTC] fleshgrinder at gmx dot at 
Of course $foo::$foo access is clear, it's not the problem I'm reporting.

Very interesting decision, because me and everybody I asked thinks that it's confusing as it is now and it's counter productive as well because one has to assign the object to a variable first before accessing the static property. This makes methods longer than necessary.

$foo::$foo = "foo";
$bar->foo = $foo;
$bar->foo::$foo; // "foo"

In my humble opinion nothing is confusing about $bar->foo::$foo because I can $foo::$foo as well. These two are equivalent.

$a = foo::$foo;
$bar->$a;

This code doesn't make sense to me. Why would $bar contain $a just because I assigned foo::$foo to $a. Bar doesn't have an $a property in the first place.

Would be nice if you have a link to the original discussion about this. I'll try to find it myself as well.
 
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