How to initialize static variables

PHP can't parse non-trivial expressions in initializers.

I prefer to work around this by adding code right after definition of the class:

class Foo {  static $bar;}Foo::$bar = array(…);

or

class Foo {  private static $bar;  static function init()  {    self::$bar = array(…);  }}Foo::init();

PHP 5.6 can handle some expressions now.

/* For Abstract classes */abstract class Foo{    private static function bar(){        static $bar = null;        if ($bar == null)            bar = array(...);        return $bar;    }    /* use where necessary */    self::bar();}

If you have control over class loading, you can do static initializing from there.

Example:

class MyClass { public static function static_init() { } }

in your class loader, do the following:

include($path . $klass . PHP_EXT);if(method_exists($klass, 'static_init')) { $klass::staticInit() }

A more heavy weight solution would be to use an interface with ReflectionClass:

interface StaticInit { public static function staticInit() { } }class MyClass implements StaticInit { public static function staticInit() { } }

in your class loader, do the following:

$rc = new ReflectionClass($klass);if(in_array('StaticInit', $rc->getInterfaceNames())) { $klass::staticInit() }

Instead of finding a way to get static variables working, I prefer to simply create a getter function. Also helpful if you need arrays belonging to a specific class, and a lot simpler to implement.

class MyClass{   public static function getTypeList()   {       return array(           "type_a"=>"Type A",           "type_b"=>"Type B",           //... etc.       );   }}

Wherever you need the list, simply call the getter method. For example:

if (array_key_exists($type, MyClass::getTypeList()) {     // do something important...}