php class methods used statically without class reference?

Question

I have a class like this:

class Utils{

   public function hello()
   {
      return "<b>Hello World</b></br>";
   }

}

Can I now do something directly like this in my page.php:

require_once("classes/Utils.php");

echo hello();

Or must I do this:

$u = new Utils;
$u->hello();

even though the function contains no object properties that need to be instantiated?

Answer 1

Yes, if you declare your function as static.

class Utils{

   public static function hello()
   {
      return "<b>Hello World</b></br>";
   }

}

and call it as

Utils::hello()

php static function

Answer 2

You can call it directly like:

echo Utils::hello();

Here is a PHPFiddle example

Answer 3

actually you call static methods like this:

Utils::hello();