[php] What does this mean? "Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM"

T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM sounds really exotic, but most certainly absolutely nonsense to me. I traced it all down to this lines of code:

<?php
Class Context {
    protected $config;

    public function getConfig($key) { // Here's the problem somewhere...
    $cnf = $this->config;
    return $cnf::getConfig($key);
    }

    function __construct() {
    $this->config = new Config();
    }
}
?>

In the constructor I create a Config object. Here's the class:

final class Config {
    private static $instance = NULL;
    private static $config;

    public static function getConfig($key) {
    return self::$config[$key];
    }

    public static function getInstance() {
    if (!self::$instance) {
        self::$instance = new Config();
    }
    return self::$instance;
    }

    private function __construct() {
    // include configuration file
    include __ROOT_INCLUDE_PATH . '/sys/config/config.php'; // defines a $config array
    $this->config = $config;
    }
}

No idea why this doesnt work / what the error means...

The error is down to an "inappropriate use" of the double colon operator:

return $cnf::getConfig($key);

as by using the :: you're attempting to call a static method of the class itself. In your example you want to call a non-static method on an instantiated object.

I think what you want is:

return $cnf->getConfig($key);

For anyone using Laravel. I was having the same error on Laravel 7.0. The error looked like this

syntax error, unexpected '::' (T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM), expecting ';' or ','

It was in my Routes\web.php file, which looked like this

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use // this was an extra **use** statement that gave me the error

Route::get('/', function () {
    return view('save-online.index');
})->name('save-online.index');

It's the name for the :: operator

Wikipedia

if you still need to use the double-colon then make sure your on PHP 5.3+

According to wikipedia, it means a "double colon" scope resolution operator.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scope_resolution_operator

Just my two cents for future visitors who have this problem.

This is the correct syntax for PHP 5.3, for example if you call static method from the class name:

MyClassName::getConfig($key);

If you previously assign the ClassName to the $cnf variable, you can call the static method from it (we are talking about PHP 5.3):

$cnf = MyClassName;
$cnf::getConfig($key);

However, this sintax doesn't work on PHP 5.2 or lower, and you need to use the following:

$cnf = MyClassName;
call_user_func(array($cnf, "getConfig", $key, ...otherposibleadditionalparameters... ));

Hope this helps people having this error in 5.2 version (don't know if this was openfrog's version).

In your example

return $cnf::getConfig($key)

Probably should be:

return $cnf->getConfig($key)

And make getConfig not static