Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STATIC

Question

class Employee 
{
    public static $favSport = "Football";

    public static function watchTV()
    {
        echo "Watching ".static::$favSport;
    }
}

class Executive extends Employee 
{
    public static $favSport = "Polo";
}

echo Executive::watchTV();

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STATIC on line 7

Why do I get parse error & and how to fix it? Thanks!

What's the return of phpversion() ? – powtac Jan 12 '11 at 12:12 — powtac, Jan 12 '11 at 12:12

score 26 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 03 '17 at 01:01

26

The parse error here:

echo "Watching ".static::$favSport;

is because late static bindings were introduced in PHP v5.3. Your php version (<5.3) doesn't recognize static::$favSport.

There isn't any way I can think of to fix it for PHP older than 5.3, other than with object inheritance (which isn't really a fix per se since it doesn't have anything to do with static)...

edited Jan 03 '17 at 01:01

Ares

5,845
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answered Jan 12 '11 at 12:05

BoltClock

665,005
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@Pekka: PHP 4 would choke on the `public` keyword :) – BoltClock Jan 12 '11 at 12:06
How about replacing `static` with the classname? – Fabio Poloni Dec 16 '15 at 09:04

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 19 '12 at 06:56

5

I had the same problem, but i used self in the place of static for my php version that's 5.2.1 well older than 5.3 http://php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.late-static-bindings.php

answered Sep 19 '12 at 06:56

dennis muthuri

51
1
1

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STATIC

2 Answers2

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