What's the PHP equivalent of a static variable in other languages?

Question

I\'m wondering if PHP has a type of variable in classes that functions like static in other languages. And by that I mean all objects of the same class use the same variable and

Answer 1

I think static is what you want. You can update a static variable, you just have to do it in a "static context" (ie. using the :: operator.

class Class1 {
    protected static $_count = 0;

    public function incrementCount() {
        return self::$_count++;
    }
}

$instance1 = new Class1();
$instance2 = new Class1();
var_dump($instance1->incrementCount(), $instance2->incrementCount());

will output:

int 0

int 1