The PHP manual does not include self
in its list of keywords. A comment on the manual page suggests that self
should be included, but it has been significantly downvoted. Does that mean that self
is not a keyword?
The reason this matters is that the PSR-12 specification on coding style states that all PHP reserved keywords and types must be in lower case. The specification contains two links to lists of reserved keywords and types, but self
does not appear in either of them. Does that mean that PSR-12 is silent on whether self
should be lower case?
If you look at the page about the the Scope Resolution Operator (::), it states that
Three special keywords
self
,parent
andstatic
are used to access properties or methods from inside the class definition.
So although the keyword page doesn't acknowledge them, other pages in the manual seem to have a different opinion. Unless the fact they are special means something.
As to if it's part of the PSR-12, although I can't answer this, you would generally see these three special keywords in lower case (not sure if I've ever seen them any other way) and so more would stick to this rather than care if a standard decrees it or not.