Zend PHP 7 Certification – PHP Basics – Constants

This post covers the Operators section of the PHP Basics chapter when studying for the Zend PHP 7 Certification.

A constant is an identifier given for a simple value. The value for non-magic constants cannot change during the execution of the script.

The naming convention of a constant follows the same rules as labelling a variable, however by default, constants are always uppercase.

We can define constants a couple of ways. The first is by using define(), and the second is by using const.

define("FOO", "something");
echo FOO; // Prints out: something

const MIN_VALUE = 1;
echo MIN_VALUE; // Prints out 1

If your constant has been declared using define(), if used in OOP should be used outside the class definition. const can be used inside and outside the class definition.

<?php

define("FOO", "Something"); // Correct
const BAR = "Some other thing"; // Correct

class MyClass
{
    const CONSTANT = 'Constant value'; // Correct
    define("BAZ", "Something else"); // Wrong

}

Prior to PHP 5.6, it was only possible for a constant to contain scalar data (string, int, bool, float)

From PHP 5.6 onwards, it is possible to define a constant as a scalar expression, and it is also possible to define an array constant.

const THREE = TWO + 1;
const ONE_THIRD = ONE / self::THREE;
const SENTENCE = 'The value of THREE is '.self::THREE;
const ARR = ['a', 'b'];

Class constant are by default public in nature but you cannot assign them a visibility as this results in a syntax error.

<?php
class MyClass
{
    const CONSTANT = 'constant value';
    public const OTHER_CONSTANT = 'other constant value';

}

$class = new MyClass();
echo $class::CONSTANT; // Works
echo $class::OTHER_CONSTANT; // Error

With PHP 7.1, you can use visibility with constants.

Magic constants

PHP provides a large number of predefined constants to any script which it runs. Some of the constants change depending on where they are used. For example, __LINE__ depends on the line that it’s used on in your script.

The nine magic constants that PHP provides can be seen below.

  • __LINE__ – The current line number of the file.
  • __FILE__ – The full path and filename of the file with symlinks resolved. If used inside an include, the name of the included file is returned.
  • __DIR__ – The directory of the file. If used inside an include, the directory of the included file is returned. This is equivalent to dirname(__FILE__). Note that the directory name will not have a trailing slash unless it is the root directory.
  • __FUNCTION__ – The function name.
  • __CLASS__ – The class name. The class name includes the namespace it was declared in (e.g. Foo\Bar).
  • __TRAIT__ – The trait name. The trait name includes the namespace it was declared in (e.g. Foo\Bar).
  • __METHOD__ – The class method name.
  • __NAMESPACE__ – The name of the current namespace.
  • ClassName::class – The fully qualified class name.

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Note: This article is based on PHP version 7.0.