When to use self over $this?

Question

In PHP 5, what is the difference between using self and $this?

When is each appropriate?

Answer 1

Here is a small benchmark (7.2.24 on repl.it):

            Speed (in seconds)  Percentage
$this->     0.91760206222534    100
self::      1.0047659873962     109.49909865716
static::    0.98066782951355    106.87288857386

Results for 4 000 000 runs. Conclusion: it doesn't matter. And here is the code I used:

called(); }
  public function calling_self() { self::called(); }
  public function calling_static() { static::called(); }
  public static function called() {}
}

$foo = new Foo();
$n = 4000000;
$times = [];

// warmup
for ($i = 0; $i < $n; $i++) { $foo->calling_this(); }
for ($i = 0; $i < $n; $i++) { $foo->calling_self(); }
for ($i = 0; $i < $n; $i++) { $foo->calling_static(); }

$start = microtime(true);
for ($i = 0; $i < $n; $i++) { $foo->calling_this(); }
$times["this"] = microtime(true)-$start;

$start = microtime(true);
for ($i = 0; $i < $n; $i++) { $foo->calling_self(); }
$times["self"] = microtime(true)-$start;

$start = microtime(true);
for ($i = 0; $i < $n; $i++) { $foo->calling_static(); }
$times["static"] = microtime(true)-$start;

$min = min($times);
echo $times["this"] . "\t" . ($times["this"] / $min)*100 . "\n";
echo $times["self"] . "\t" . ($times["self"] / $min)*100 . "\n";
echo $times["static"] . "\t" . ($times["static"] / $min)*100 . "\n";