PHP5 static keyword and usage

Question

The static keyword is known to be a free agent.

You can declare a method "static" either by writing:

protected static function foo() {
// lots of self:: code in here
}

Or:

static protected function bar() {
// lots of self:: code in here
}

I just came across code that read:

static protected static function foobar() {
// lots of self:: code in here
}

Surely it's a typo from the original author, but why is PHP accepting this as a valid statement?

UPDATE The version in question is PHP 5.2.16. I just confirmed, this is valid too:

static static static public static function foobar() {
// lots ...
}

Because PHP interpreter is not best in the universe :( But it's flexible so we can torment it every day to do our bidding :) — Matej Baćo
– Matej Baćo, Commented Feb 21, 2011 at 14:44

BoltClock · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-21 16:14:44Z

5

That appears to be a bug in previous versions of PHP which has been fixed. Testing it in PHP 5.3 yields

Fatal error: Multiple static modifiers are not allowed

EDIT: thanks to Matt Gibson for the find, this was indeed a bug that was fixed somewhere in the PHP 5.3 branch.

answered Feb 21, 2011 at 14:42

BoltClock

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4 Comments

@Linus Kleen: Yeah, I was searching but nothing came up. Perhaps they found it on their own and quietly fixed it. Sneaky, much ;)

@BoltClock Can you put this in your answer, so I can accept? And thank you for productively wasting your time, @Matt.

@Linus No problem. Got to have something to do while I'm waiting for long queries to finish :)