Dynamic static method call in PHP?

Question

Hi,

Please could someone experienced in PHP help out with the following. Somewhere in my code, I have a call to a public static method inside a non-instantiated class:

$result = myClassName::myFunctionName();

However, I would like to have many such classes and determine the correct class name on the fly according to the user's language. In other words, I have:

$language = 'EN';

... and I need to do something like:

$result = myClassName_EN::myFunctionName();

I know I could pass the language as a parameter to the function and deal with it inside just one common class but for various reasons, I would prefer a different solution.

Does this make any sense, anyone? Thanks.

Answer 1

although i think the way you deal is a very bad idea, i think i may have a solution

$className = 'myClassName_'.$language;
$result = $className::myFunctionName();

i think this is what you want

Answer 2

Use the call_user_func function:

http://php.net/manual/en/function.call-user-func.php

Example:

call_user_func('myClassName_'.$language.'::myFunctionName');

Answer 3

I think you could do:

$classname = 'myClassName_' . $language;
$result = $classname::myFunctionName();

This is called Variable Functions

Answer 4

As far as i could understand your question, you need to get the class name which can be done using get_class function. On the other hand, the Reflection class can help you here which is great when it comes to methods, arguments, etc in OOP way.

Answer 5

I would encapsulate the creation of the class you need in a factory.

This way you will have a single entry point when you need to change your base name or the rules for mapping the language to the right class.

    class YourClassFactory {

        private $_language;
        private $_basename = 'yourclass';

        public YourClassFactory($language) {
            $this->_language = $language;
        }

        public function getYourClass() {
            return $this->_basename . '_' . $this->_language;
        }    
    } 

and then, when you have to use it:

$yourClass = $yourClassFactoryInstance->getYourClass();
$yourClass::myFunctionName();

Answer 6

@Silvio Donnini, @marvin, @adam:

Solutions like:

$yourClass::myFunctionName();

will not work. PHP will produce parse error.

Unfortunately, the only way is to use very slow call_user_func().