Creating the Singleton design pattern in PHP5

Question

How would one create a Singleton class using PHP5 classes?

Answer 1

The Real One and Modern way to make Singleton Pattern is:

<?php

/**
 * Singleton Pattern.
 * 
 * Modern implementation.
 */
class Singleton
{
    /**
     * Call this method to get singleton
     */
    public static function instance()
    {
      static $instance = false;
      if( $instance === false )
      {
        // Late static binding (PHP 5.3+)
        $instance = new static();
      }

      return $instance;
    }

    /**
     * Make constructor private, so nobody can call "new Class".
     */
    private function __construct() {}

    /**
     * Make clone magic method private, so nobody can clone instance.
     */
    private function __clone() {}

    /**
     * Make sleep magic method private, so nobody can serialize instance.
     */
    private function __sleep() {}

    /**
     * Make wakeup magic method private, so nobody can unserialize instance.
     */
    private function __wakeup() {}

}

So now you can use it like.

<?php

/**
 * Database.
 *
 * Inherited from Singleton, so it's now got singleton behavior.
 */
class Database extends Singleton {

  protected $label;

  /**
   * Example of that singleton is working correctly.
   */
  public function setLabel($label)
  {
    $this->label = $label;
  }

  public function getLabel()
  {
    return $this->label;
  }

}

// create first instance
$database = Database::instance();
$database->setLabel('Abraham');
echo $database->getLabel() . PHP_EOL;

// now try to create other instance as well
$other_db = Database::instance();
echo $other_db->getLabel() . PHP_EOL; // Abraham

$other_db->setLabel('Priler');
echo $database->getLabel() . PHP_EOL; // Priler
echo $other_db->getLabel() . PHP_EOL; // Priler

As you see this realization is lot more flexible.

Answer 2

class Database{

        //variable to hold db connection
        private $db;
        //note we used static variable,beacuse an instance cannot be used to refer this
        public static $instance;

        //note constructor is private so that classcannot be instantiated
        private function __construct(){
          //code connect to database  

         }     

         //to prevent loop hole in PHP so that the class cannot be cloned
        private function __clone() {}

        //used static function so that, this can be called from other classes
        public static function getInstance(){

            if( !(self::$instance instanceof self) ){
                self::$instance = new self();           
            }
             return self::$instance;
        }


        public function query($sql){
            //code to run the query
        }

    }


Access the method getInstance using
$db = Singleton::getInstance();
$db->query();

Answer 3

I liked @jose-segura method of using traits but didn't like the need to define a static variable on sub-classes. Below is a solution that avoids it by caching the instances in a static local variable to the factory method indexed by class name:

<?php
trait Singleton {

  # Single point of entry for creating a new instance. For a given
  # class always returns the same instance.
  public static function instance(){
    static $instances = array();
    $class = get_called_class();
    if( !isset($instances[$class]) ) $instances[$class] = new $class();
    return $instances[$class];
  }

  # Kill traditional methods of creating new instances
  protected function __clone() {}
  protected function __construct() {}
}

Usage is the same as @jose-segura only no need for the static variable in sub-classes.

Answer 4

Here's my example that provides ability to call as $var = new Singleton() and also creating 3 variables to test if it creates new object:

class Singleton{

    private static $data;

    function __construct(){
        if ($this::$data == null){
            $this->makeSingleton();
        }
        echo "<br/>".$this::$data;
    }

    private function makeSingleton(){
        $this::$data = rand(0, 100);
    }

    public function change($new_val){
        $this::$data = $new_val;
    }

    public function printme(){
        echo "<br/>".$this::$data;
    }

}


$a = new Singleton();
$b = new Singleton();
$c = new Singleton();

$a->change(-2);
$a->printme();
$b->printme();

$d = new Singleton();
$d->printme();

Answer 5

Unfortunately Inwdr's answer breaks when there are multiple subclasses.

Here is a correct inheritable Singleton base class.

class Singleton
{
    private static $instances = array();
    protected function __construct() {}
    protected function __clone() {}
    public function __wakeup()
    {
        throw new Exception("Cannot unserialize singleton");
    }

    public static function getInstance()
    {
        $cls = get_called_class(); // late-static-bound class name
        if (!isset(self::$instances[$cls])) {
            self::$instances[$cls] = new static;
        }
        return self::$instances[$cls];
    }
}

Test code:

class Foo extends Singleton {}
class Bar extends Singleton {}

echo get_class(Foo::getInstance()) . "\n";
echo get_class(Bar::getInstance()) . "\n";

Answer 6

All this complexity ("late static binding" ... harumph) is, to me, simply a sign of PHP's broken object/class model. If class objects were first-class objects (see Python), then "$_instance" would be a class instance variable -- a member of the class object, as opposed to a member/property of its instances, and also as opposed to shared by its descendants. In the Smalltalk world, this is the difference between a "class variable" and a "class instance variable".

In PHP, it looks to me as though we need to take to heart the guidance that patterns are a guide towards writing code -- we might perhaps think about a Singleton template, but trying to write code that inherits from an actual "Singleton" class looks misguided for PHP (though I supposed some enterprising soul could create a suitable SVN keyword).

I will continue to just code each singleton separately, using a shared template.

Notice that I'm absolutely staying OUT of the singletons-are-evil discussion, life is too short.