Find the class name of the calling function in php

Question

Lets say I have:

    class Zebra{
        public static function action(){
            print 'I was called from the '.get_class().' class'; // How do I get water here?
        }
    }

    class Water{
        public static function drink(){
            Zebra::action();
        }
    }

Water::drink();

How do I get "water" from the zebra class?

(This is for php 5.3)

Look into `debug_backtrace`. But you really don't want to be doing that in normal code paths. — Jon, Sep 15 '11 at 08:10
possible duplicate of [PHP: how do I know the caller of a function?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3330938/php-how-do-i-know-the-caller-of-a-function) — Gordon, Sep 15 '11 at 08:14
@Matt that would still be Zebra because this is not an issue of LSB. The OP does call Zebra. — Gordon, Sep 15 '11 at 08:14
If you need to make decisions based on the Caller, you might want to rethink your design. You should not have that need. — Gordon, Sep 15 '11 at 08:19

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 15 '11 at 08:12

3

You can get the caller's info from debug_backtrace http://php.net/manual/en/function.debug-backtrace.php

answered Sep 15 '11 at 08:12

Ravi

727
6
19

Not too keen on using back trace either. - there might not be a solution – CodeChap Sep 15 '11 at 08:19
*(related)* [`debug_backtrace` in production code](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/346703/php-debug-backtrace-in-production-code) – Gordon Sep 15 '11 at 08:23

Loïc BRIED · Answer 2 · 2015-09-28T13:04:58.393

Full usable solution using exception, but not debug_backtrace, no need to modify any prototype :

function getRealCallClass($functionName)
{
  try
   {
     throw new exception();
   }
  catch(exception $e)
   {
     $trace = $e->getTrace();
     $bInfunction = false;
     foreach($trace as $trace_piece)
      {
          if ($trace_piece['function'] == $functionName)
           {
             if (!$bInfunction)
              $bInfunction = true;
           }
          elseif($bInfunction) //found !!!
           {
             return $trace_piece['class'];
           }
      }
   }
}

class Zebra{
        public static function action(){
        print 'I was called from the '.getRealCallClass(__FUNCTION__).' class'; 
    }
}

class Water{
    public static function drink(){
        Zebra::action();
    }
}

Water::drink();

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 15 '11 at 08:10

1

One not so good solution is : use __METHOD__ or __FUNCTION__ or __CLASS__ . and pass it as parameter to function being called. http://codepad.org/AVG0Taq7

<?php

  class Zebra{
        public static function action($source){
            print 'I was called from the '.$source.' class'; // How do I get water here?
        }
    }

    class Water{
        public static function drink(){
            Zebra::action(__CLASS__);
        }
    }

Water::drink();

?>

answered Sep 15 '11 at 08:10

DhruvPathak

42,059
16
116
175

1

that's not the "not so good solution" but the only sane solution. – Gordon Sep 15 '11 at 08:12
@gordon , I find it not so good, because he will have to edit an existing code for that. A better solution would have been which could have made this possible without code modification. I am not sure if there exists any. – DhruvPathak Sep 15 '11 at 08:15
Thanks, this is how I had it originally, its what I'm trying to avoid. – CodeChap Sep 15 '11 at 08:15
@Dhruv that "other" solution would involve debug_backtrace which is bad practise. If the OP needs the information inside that function it should be an argument passed into the function. Anything else breaks encapsulation. – Gordon Sep 15 '11 at 08:16

Find the class name of the calling function in php

3 Answers3

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