Can you define a static method outside of a class?

Question

Let's say I have a class:

class test {
    public static function sayHi() {
        echo 'hi';
    }
}

Call it by test::sayHi();

Can I define sayHi() outside of the class or perhaps get rid of the class altogether?

public static function sayHi() {
      echo 'hi';
}

I only need this function to encapsulate code for a script. Maybe the answer is not a static method but a plain function def?

Answer 1

A static method without a class does not make any sense at all. The static keywords signals that this method is identical for all instances of the class. This enables you to call it.. well.. statically on the class itself instead of on one of its instances.

If the content of the method is self-contained, meaning it does not need any other static variables or methods of the class, you can simply omit the class and put the code in a global method. Using global methods is considered a bad practice.

So my advice is to just keep the class, even if it has only that one method within. This way you can still autoload the file instead of having to require it yourself.