How to get name of the constant?

Question

Assuming you have a constant defined in a class:

class Foo {
    const ERR_SOME_CONST = 6001;

    function bar() {
        $x = 6001;
        // need to get 'ERR_SOME_CONST'
    }
}

Is it possible with PHP?

Answer 1

You can get them with the reflection API

I'm assuming you would like to get the name of the constant based on the value of your variable (value of variable == value of constant). Get all the constants defined in the class, loop over them and compare the values of those constants with the value of your variable. Note that with this approach you might get some other constant that the one you want, if there are two constants with the same value.

example:

class Foo {
    const ERR_SOME_CONST = 6001;
    const ERR_SOME_OTHER_CONST = 5001;

    function bar() {
        $x = 6001;
        $fooClass = new ReflectionClass ( 'Foo' );
     $constants = $fooClass->getConstants();

     $constName = null;
     foreach ( $constants as $name => $value )
     {
      if ( $value == $x )
      {
       $constName = $name;
       break;
      }
     }

     echo $constName;
    }
}

ps: do you mind telling why you need this, as it seems very unusual ...

Answer 2

With Reflection:

$class = new ReflectionClass("Foo");
$constants = $class->getConstants();

$constants is an array which holds all the names and values of the constants defined in class Foo.