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

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