What does this mean? "Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM"

Question

T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM sounds really exotic, but most certainly absolutely nonsense to me. I traced it all down to this lines of code:

<?php
Class Context {
    protected $config;

    public function getConfig($key) { // Here's the problem somewhere...
    $cnf = $this->config;
    return $cnf::getConfig($key);
    }

    function __construct() {
    $this->config = new Config();
    }
}
?>

In the constructor I create a Config object. Here's the class:

final class Config {
    private static $instance = NULL;
    private static $config;

    public static function getConfig($key) {
    return self::$config[$key];
    }

    public static function getInstance() {
    if (!self::$instance) {
        self::$instance = new Config();
    }
    return self::$instance;
    }

    private function __construct() {
    // include configuration file
    include __ROOT_INCLUDE_PATH . '/sys/config/config.php'; // defines a $config array
    $this->config = $config;
    }
}

No idea why this doesnt work / what the error means...

Answer 1

According to wikipedia, it means a "double colon" scope resolution operator.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scope%5Fresolution%5Foperator

Answer 2

T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM is the double colon scope resolution thingy PHP uses - ::

Quick glance at your code, I think this line:

return $cnf::getConfig($key);

should be

return $cnf->getConfig($key);

The first is the way to call a method statically - this code would be valid if $cnf contained a string that was also a valid class. The -> syntax is for calling a method on an instance of a class/object.

Answer 3

The error is down to an "inappropriate use" of the double colon operator:

return $cnf::getConfig($key);

as you're trying to call a static method of the class, but using an instantiation of it instead (someone else will no doubt phrase this better, I'm tired ;-))

I think what you want is:

return $cnf->getConfig($key);

Answer 4

It's the name for the :: operator

Wikipedia

Answer 5

In your example

return $cnf::getConfig($key)

Probably should be:

return $cnf->getConfig($key)

And make getConfig not static