Chaining Static Methods in PHP?

Question

Is it possible to chain static methods together using a static class? Say I wanted to do something like this:

$value = TestClass::toValue(5)::add(3)::subtrac         


        

Answer 1

You could always use the First method as a static and the remaining as instance methods:

$value = Math::toValue(5)->add(3)->subtract(2)->add(8)->result();

Or better yet:

 $value = Math::eval(Math::value(5)->add(3)->subtract(2)->add(8));

class Math {
     public $operation;
     public $operationValue;
     public $args;
     public $allOperations = array();

     public function __construct($aOperation, $aValue, $theArgs)
     {
       $this->operation = $aOperation;
       $this->operationValue = $aValue;
       $this->args = $theArgs;
     }

     public static function eval($math) {
       if(strcasecmp(get_class($math), "Math") == 0){
            $newValue = $math->operationValue;
            foreach ($math->allOperations as $operationKey=>$currentOperation) {
                switch($currentOperation->operation){
                    case "add":
                         $newvalue = $currentOperation->operationValue + $currentOperation->args;
                         break;
                    case "subtract":
                         $newvalue = $currentOperation->operationValue - $currentOperation->args;
                         break;
                }
            }
            return $newValue;
       }
       return null;
     }

     public function add($number){
         $math = new Math("add", null, $number);
         $this->allOperations[count($this->allOperations)] &= $math;
         return $this;
     }

     public function subtract($number){
         $math = new Math("subtract", null, $number);
         $this->allOperations[count($this->allOperations)] &= $math;
         return $this;
     }

     public static function value($number){
         return new Math("value", $number, null);
     }
 }

Just an FYI.. I wrote this off the top of my head (right here on the site). So, it may not run, but that is the idea. I could have also did a recursive method call to eval, but I thought this may be simpler. Please let me know if you would like me to elaborate or provide any other help.