What is a static variable within a function?

A static variable is one that is defined within a function, but the definition only occurs the first time, and then the value can be amended or changed during function calls.

Thus if you wanted to count how many times a function was called, you would declare the variable as a static variable with the 'static' keyword like this:


<?php

function nothing() { static $callme = "1"; echo "I have $callme things to declare\n"; $callme++; }

for($i =0; $i < 10; $i++) { nothing(); } 

?>

Prints this:

I have 1 things to declare
I have 2 things to declare
I have 3 things to declare
I have 4 things to declare
I have 5 things to declare
I have 6 things to declare
I have 7 things to declare
I have 8 things to declare
I have 9 things to declare
I have 10 things to declare

If you remove the keyword 'static' then you get this instead:

I have 1 things to declare
I have 1 things to declare
I have 1 things to declare
I have 1 things to declare
I have 1 things to declare
I have 1 things to declare
I have 1 things to declare
I have 1 things to declare
I have 1 things to declare
I have 1 things to declare

Comment on this Question and Answer >>>

ASK A QUESTION

More functions PHP Questions

difference between fetch_array function & fetch_row function

i want to create a webapp that has 2 fields to fill in with variables there should be 2 random variables to choose from per field there are some meals that both are able to appear in the first and 2nd box if you'd randomize it i want to make a cycle that

I want to use the php include function to bring in a file that is related by $ref to this page and I cannot get it to use the $ref variable. my code line is where echo $ref is the property number basically it is a view of different properties an

PHP Fatal error does not result in HTTP error code 500. When PHP code throws a Fatal error, I would expect Apache to respond with HTTP 500, not a 200?

1-what is a header("Location:http//www.website.com"); 2-how does it work? 3-What is a reason to use this function?