How to fix FATAL ERROR Uncaught Error: Using $this when not in object context

This error “Using $this when not in object context” is pretty straightforward. The error generally occurs when you use $this in the non-static method. So let’s take an example to understand this.

<?php
class myclass {

    public $variable;

    public function __construct() {

        $this->variable = 'initialized';
    }

    public function myMethod() {
        return $this->variable;
    }

}

So whenever you execute this code, you will get one PHP warning and one fatal error.

WARNING Non-static method myclass::myMethod() should not be called statically on line number 17

FATAL ERROR Uncaught Error: Using $this when not in object context in

So what exactly the error is? So let check the myclass class. You can see there is a public variable called $variable. To initialize or get a value from a non-static variable we have to use $this->.

So in the construct() method, we have initialized $varibale like this $this->variable = ‘initialized’; . From myMethod() method will return the $variable. At end of the code, we write echo myclass::myMethod() which should print the word ‘initialized’.

But if we run this, we will get the above error. Here the first warning “Non-static method myclass::myMethod() should not be called statically” clearly tell you, as myMethod() is not a static function, you can’t use :: this.

So we have to make myMethod() function static or make an instance of this class like this.

$newClass = new myClass();
echo $newClass->myMethod(); //which will print initialized

Or you can make myMethod() as a static method. So you don’t have to instantiate the class. We can directly call the method by using Scope Resolution Operator(::). So the code will be like below-

<?php
class myclass {

    public static function myMethod() {
        return "initialized";
    }

}

echo myclass::myMethod();