How do I check in PHP that I'm in a static context (or not)?

Question

Is there any way I can check if a method is being called statically or on an instantiated object?

Answer 1

Test for $this:

class Foo {

    function bar() {
        if (isset($this)) {
            echo "Y";
        } else {
            echo "N";
        }
    }
}

$f = new Foo();
$f->bar(); // prints "Y"

Foo::bar(); // prints "N"

Edit: As pygorex1 points out, you can also force the method to be evaluated statically:

class Foo {

    static function bar() {
        if (isset($this)) {
            echo "Y";
        } else {
            echo "N";
        }
    }
}

$f = new Foo();
$f->bar(); // prints "N", not "Y"!

Foo::bar(); // prints "N"