Below is an example class hierarchy and code. What I'm looking for is a way to determine if 'ChildClass1' or 'ChildClass2' had the static method whoAmI() called on it without re-implementing it in each child class.
<?php
abstract class ParentClass {
public static function whoAmI () {
// NOT correct, always gives 'ParentClass'
$class = __CLASS__;
// NOT correct, always gives 'ParentClass'.
// Also very round-about and likely slow.
$trace = debug_backtrace();
$class = $trace[0]['class'];
return $class;
}
}
class ChildClass1 extends ParentClass {
}
class ChildClass2 extends ParentClass {
}
// Shows 'ParentClass'
// Want to show 'ChildClass1'
print ChildClass1::whoAmI();
print "\n";
// Shows 'ParentClass'
// Want to show 'ChildClass2'
print ChildClass2::whoAmI();
print "\n";
Now that PHP 5.3 is widely available in the wild, I wanted to put together a summary answer to this question to reflect newly available techniques.
As mentioned in the other answers, PHP 5.3 has introduced Late Static Binding via a new static keyword. As well, a new get_called_class() function is also available that can only be used within a class method (instance or static).
For the purpose of determining the class as was asked in this question, the get_called_class() function is appropriate:
<?php
abstract class ParentClass {
public static function whoAmI () {
return get_called_class();
}
}
class ChildClass1 extends ParentClass {
}
class ChildClass2 extends ParentClass {
}
// Shows 'ChildClass1'
print ChildClass1::whoAmI();
print "\n";
// Shows 'ChildClass2'
print ChildClass2::whoAmI();
print "\n";
The user contributed notes for get_called_class() include a few sample implementations that should work in PHP 5.2 as well by making use of debug_backtrace().