Chaining Static Methods in PHP?

I like the solution provided by Camilo above, essentially since all you're doing is altering the value of a static member, and since you do want chaining (even though it's only syntatic sugar), then instantiating TestClass is probably the best way to go.

I'd suggest a Singleton pattern if you want to restrict instantiation of the class:

class TestClass
{   
    public static $currentValue;

    private static $_instance = null;

    private function __construct () { }

    public static function getInstance ()
    {
        if (self::$_instance === null) {
            self::$_instance = new self;
        }

        return self::$_instance;
    }

    public function toValue($value) {
        self::$currentValue = $value;
        return $this;
    }

    public function add($value) {
        self::$currentValue = self::$currentValue + $value;
        return $this;
    }

    public function subtract($value) {
        self::$currentValue = self::$currentValue - $value;
        return $this;
    }

    public function result() {
        return self::$currentValue;
    }
}

// Example Usage:
$result = TestClass::getInstance ()
    ->toValue(5)
    ->add(3)
    ->subtract(2)
    ->add(8)
    ->result();

class oop{
    public static $val;

    public static function add($var){
        static::$val+=$var;
        return new static;
    }

    public static function sub($var){
        static::$val-=$var;
        return new static;
    }

    public static function out(){
        return static::$val;
    }

    public static function init($var){
        static::$val=$var;
        return new static;      
    }
}

echo oop::init(5)->add(2)->out();

Little crazy code on php5.3... just for fun.

namespace chaining;
class chain
    {
    static public function one()
        {return get_called_class();}

    static public function two()
        {return get_called_class();}
    }

${${${${chain::one()} = chain::two()}::one()}::two()}::one();

With php7 you will be able to use desired syntax because of new Uniform Variable Syntax

<?php

abstract class TestClass {

    public static $currentValue;

    public static function toValue($value) {
        self::$currentValue = $value;
        return __CLASS__;
    }

    public static function add($value) {
        self::$currentValue = self::$currentValue + $value;
        return __CLASS__;
    }

    public static function subtract($value) {
        self::$currentValue = self::$currentValue - $value;
        return __CLASS__;
    }

    public static function result() {
        return self::$currentValue;
    }

}

$value = TestClass::toValue(5)::add(3)::subtract(2)::add(8)::result();
echo $value;

Demo


If toValue(x) returns an object, you could do like this:

$value = TestClass::toValue(5)->add(3)->substract(2)->add(8);

Providing that toValue returns a new instance of the object, and each next method mutates it, returning an instance of $this.