How do I pass a Class as a parameter to a PHP function

Question

I want to be able to pass a class (not an object of the class) to a PHP function. The desired end-result of all of this is the ability to call static functions present on that class. Take, for example:

class MyClass extends Model
{
  public static function doThing()
  {
    return static::callOtherClassFunction();
  }
}

Now I have a function structured like this:

function do_thing_with_any_class($class)
{
  return $class::doThing();
}

But, if I call do_thing_with_any_class(MyClass::class) , I get a syntax error.

Is what I want to do possible in PHP idiomatically? (ie without using Reflection to get the static function).

PS: This is tagged as 'Laravel' because 'MyClass' represents my 'Base Model' - the class that inherits directly from Laravel's "Model" class. But the question is definitely more general than that.

Answer 1

You can pass the class itself as a parameter and a variable as the instance like so

function do_thing_with_any_class(MyClass $class)
{
  return $class::doThing();
}