Where's the difference between self and $this-> in a PHP class or PHP method?

Question

Where\'s the difference between self and $this-> in a PHP class or PHP method?

Example:

I\'ve seen this code recently.

Answer 1

$this refers to the instance of the class, that is correct. However, there is also something called static state, which is the same for all instances of that class. self:: is the accessor for those attributes and functions.

Also, you cannot normally access an instance member from a static method. Meaning, you cannot do

static function something($x) {
  $this->that = $x;
}

because the static method would not know which instance you are referring to.