Classes: Constants

A class can contain definitions for named constants.

Because a class constant belongs to the class as a whole, it is implicitly static. For example:

class Automobile {
  const DEFAULT_COLOR = "white";
  // ...
}

<<__EntryPoint>>
function main(): void {
  $col = Automobile::DEFAULT_COLOR; // or: $col = self::DEFAULT_COLOR;
  echo "\$col = $col\n";
}

Visibility

Class constants are always public, and can not be explicitly declared as public, protected, or private.

Selection

Inside a parent class, use self::foo to access a named constant foo. Outside a parent class, a class constant's name must be fully qualified with the class and constant name (e.g. Bar::foo). For more information, see scope-resolution operator, ::.

Type Inference

If a class constant's type is omitted, it can be inferred. For example:

• the inferred type of const DEFAULT_COLOR = "white" is string,
• the inferred type of const DEFAULT_VALUE = 42 is int.
• the inferred type of const DEFAULT_FOODS = vec["apple", "orange", "banana"] is vec.

Limitations

Constants can not be assigned to legacy container types like Vector, Map, Set, et al., and closures.

Instead, create constants with equivalent types like array, vec, dict, and set. When using these types, all subinitializers must resolve to constant expressions.