Accessing class variables in PHP

Question

I'm wondering why the following lines causes an error. doSomething() gets called from another PHP file.

class MyClass
{   
    private $word;

    public function __construct()
    {
        $this->word='snuffy';
    }   
    public function doSomething($email)
    {
        echo('word:');
        echo($this->word); //ERROR: Using $this when not in object context
    }
}

Marc B · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-08 17:50:14Z

4

How are you calling the method?

Doing

MyClass::doSomething('[email protected]');

will fail, as it's not a static method, and you're not accessing a static variable.

However, doing

$obj = new MyClass();
$obj->doSomething('[email protected]');

should work.

answered Apr 8, 2011 at 17:50

Marc B

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Comments

Community · Accepted Answer · 2023-11-17 19:42:58Z

1

To use your class and method which are not static, you must instanciate your class :

$object = new MyClass();
$object->doSomething('[email protected]');

You cannot call your non-static method statically, like this :

MyClass::doSomething('[email protected]');

Calling this will get you :

A warning (I'm using PHP 5.3) : Strict standards: Non-static method MyClass::doSomething() should not be called statically
And, as your statically-called non-static method is using $this : Fatal error: Using $this when not in object context

For more informations, you should read the [**Classes and Objects**][1] section of the manual -- and, for this specific question, its [**Static Keyword**][2] page.

edited Nov 17, 2023 at 19:42

CommunityBot

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answered Apr 8, 2011 at 17:49

Pascal MARTIN

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