Null Coalesce on local static variable

[Geolim4]

Description

The following code:

  function getUserContext()
  {
    static $userContext ??= User::load(\Drupal::currentUser()->id());
    return $userContext;
  }
<?php

Resulted in this output:

syntax error, unexpected token "??=", expecting "," or ";"

But I expected this output instead:

Assignation if `$currentUser` is not yet defined.

PHP Version

PHP 8.3.0, PHP 8.4.0

Operating System

All

[iluuu1994]

Hi @Geolim4. This is not a bug, static variables can only be initialized with =. Your request also doesn't make sense, because the initializer is only ran on the first execution anyway, which is what you're arguably trying to achieve. https://3v4l.org/f26Zl So, it seems like you can safely use = here.

[Geolim4]

Your request also doesn't make sense, because the initializer is only ran on the first execution anyway

It's the purpose here indeed... I'd like not to fetch every damn time the database for this particular need, it's not that incompatible, I declared it as a bug because there's no more appropriate category.

It should be possible to avoid excessive boilerplate with if($userContext === null) {...}, I think it's a forgotten edge case of null coalesce operator.