What are static methods in PHP object oriented programming?

[Ben Stones]

You can make methods static which means you do not need to create an instance of the class in order to execute the method. For example:

<?php
class Output
{
public static function output_text($text)
{
echo $text;
} 
}

// execute method

Output::output_text("<p>Really important text!</p>");
?>

The double colon is a scope resolution operator: PHP: Scope Resolution Operator (: - Manual - it allows access to static and overridden class-level variables (properties) and methods (overriding in regards to the use of inheritance in object oriented programming) and class constants.