What is static binding in the context of programming?

Static binding (early binding) is the process of determining the correspondence between a method or function call and its implementation during compilation or linking of the program, before its actual execution.

In the context of PHP, which is an interpreted language, static binding more often refers to the invocation of static methods and access to static properties.

Advantages:

• Higher performance: No additional time is required to determine the called method or property at runtime.
• Early error detection: Errors related to non-existent methods or properties are detected at the code analysis stage.

Disadvantages:

• Less flexibility: Implementing polymorphism based on static binding is difficult.

Example of static binding in PHP:

<?php
class MyClass {
    public static $staticProperty = 'static value';

    public static function staticMethod() {
        return 'static method called';
    }
}

// Static binding: call to method and access to property are determined before execution
echo MyClass::staticMethod();
echo MyClass::$staticProperty;

Unlike static binding, dynamic binding (late binding) determines the correspondence between a call and its implementation at runtime. In PHP, dynamic binding is used for calling regular object methods. PHP also supports late static binding using the static:: keyword for more flexible determination of the static method call context in inheritance hierarchies.