PHP Static Variables

Question

I have a class which does some API (REST) functions. I'd like to declare the variable class-wide variable and static, so I won't fetch the data over and over again. (This is what I think in theory, could be wrong) Many methods in the class will need that data.

I am using this type of class but something doesn't look right. It is working, but (this is just an example class, not the real code);

class Some_Process {

    private static $tickets = array();

    private function _get_tickets () {
        if(!self::$tickets) {
           $curl = curl_init();
           curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, TRUE);
           curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_URL, 'http://someurl');

           self::$tickets = json_decode(curl_exec($curl));
           if(!self::$tickets) {
               return FALSE;
           }
           return TRUE;
        }
    }
    function process_tickets () {
       self::_get_tickets();
       //here I start using the varible
       do some job on .. self::$tickets;
    }   
}

It's nice enough :) I would return self::$tickets and not a boolean, but it's maybe just a matter of taste. — Karoly Horvath
– Karoly Horvath, Commented Aug 9, 2011 at 9:52
Thanks :) Actually my function is setting number of variables (i have stripped it down). So that's why I was returning boolean. — hergone
– hergone, Commented Aug 9, 2011 at 10:00

nobody · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-09 10:32:09Z

1

There is one problem, what if the actual number of tickets returned by http://someurl is zero? then if(!self::$tickets) will always be true even if we have already filled the array. I would initialize $tickets with null:

private static $tickets = null;

and change that condition to:

if( self::$tickets === null ) {
    self::$tickets = array();
    ...
}

answered Aug 9, 2011 at 10:32

nobody

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Comments

Kakawait · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-09 10:02:19Z

And singleton pattern ?

class Some_Process {
   protected static $_instance;
   private $_tickets = array();

   public static function initialiaze() {
       $curl = curl_init();
       curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, TRUE);
       curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_URL, 'http://someurl');

       self::getInstance(json_decode(curl_exec($curl));
   }

   public static function getInstance($tickets = null) {
       if (!self::$_instance) {
            self::$_instance = new self($tickets);
       }

       return self::$_instance;
   }

   private function __constructor($tickets) {
       $this->_$tickets = $tickets;
   }

   public function getTickets() {
       return $this->_tickets;
   }

   public function processTickets() {
       $this->_tickets();
       ...
   }
}

with Singleton pattern you instantiate your object one time so you crawl tickets one time.

eq:

Some_Process::initialize();
Some_Process::getInstance()->processTickets();

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