What is the difference between $this, self and static in PHP?

These three keywords are used inside a class, but they point to different things.

Keyword	What it means	Used for
$this	The current object	Normal properties and methods
self	The class where the code is written	Static properties, constants and static methods
static	The class that was actually called (late static binding)	Static methods when child classes are involved

<?php
class Car {
    public $name = "Swift";
    public static $wheels = 4;

    public function show() {
        return $this->name . " has " . self::$wheels . " wheels";
    }
}

$car = new Car();
echo $car->show();
?>

Output:

The difference between self and static is seen when a child class calls the method.

<?php
class A {
    public static function create() {
        return new static();   // self would always create class A
    }
}

class B extends A {}

echo get_class(B::create());
?>

Output:

If we had written new self(), the output would be A.

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