How does Laravel dynamically call a class method statically without implicitly using the static keyword for the method in PHP?

Question

Laravel makes it possible to call a class method using the scope resolution operator (::) without the method being statically declared.

In PHP you can only call static methods only when they are declared as such, for example:

class User {

   public static function getAge() { ... } 

}

Can be called as User::getAge();

How can this be done in a normal PHP class. I guess for it to be possible it needs to be done using a design pattern or something else. Can anyone help me out?

So what I meant by the above was is it possible to instantiate a class and call it's method statically in php. Since that feature was dropped from previous versions

class Student {

     public function examScore($mark_one, $mark_two) {
         //some code here
     }

}

How do access it in this manner

$student = new Student;
$student::examScore(20, 40);

And I talked about Laravel because it allows you to alias your classes and call it in this manner Student::examScore(20,40);

Something called facade pattern or so. An explanation with example can help.

After a long search I found an article that kind of explains it here:

https://www.sitepoint.com/how-laravel-facades-work-and-how-to-use-them-elsewhere

Can you provide an example of such a method in Laravel and how you would call it to make it clear what you are referring to? — D Malan
– D Malan, Commented Mar 2, 2020 at 9:11
An example is how the Blade class is used to call its methods example Blade::compileString($param) — Developer Kwame
– Developer Kwame, Commented Mar 2, 2020 at 15:33
This first two videos here would also be of interest to you. — D Malan
– D Malan, Commented Mar 3, 2020 at 11:11

A.L. · Accepted Answer · 2020-03-02 09:12:26Z

2

My guess here is that your User class actually extends the Laravel Model class.

This class implements some of PHPs so called magic methods. You can find our about them here: https://www.php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.magic.php

One of these is __callStatic.

In Model.php:

/**
 * Handle dynamic static method calls into the method.
 *
 * @param  string  $method
 * @param  array  $parameters
 * @return mixed
 */
public static function __callStatic($method, $parameters)
{
    return (new static)->$method(...$parameters);
}

answered Mar 2, 2020 at 9:12

A.L.

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2 Comments

Developer Kwame Over a year ago

No I am not using Laravel Model. I want to know how it can be done in raw PHP. Can you help with a little real world example please

Developer Kwame Over a year ago

@ A.L. this answer has been very helpful but I what I was looking for is explained here : sitepoint.com/… thanks so much

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