OOP Static Functions vs. Objects

[Edward Vermillion <evermillion@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm still trying to get my head around all the OOP stuff and was  
wondering if there is any basic difference between calling a static  
function as opposed to creating an object, in situations where both  
methods will do the same thing for you. Is there any overhead to  
creating an object from a class that might impact time/memory  
consumption(efficiency), or does PHP treat these two methods the  
same? I'm currently working with PHP4 but am also curious as to how  
it works in PHP5.

I.E.:

<pseudoCode>
class Foo {
	
	var $_vars = array();

	function &setVar1($var) {
		static $localVars = array();
		if (!empty($localVars[$var])) {
			return $localVars[$var];
		} else {
			$localVars[$var] =& new $var();
			return $localVars[$var];
		}
	}

	function &setVar2($var) {		
		if (!empty($this->_vars[$var])) {
			return $this->_vars[$var];
		} else {
			$this->_vars[$var] =& new $var();
			return $this->_vars[$var];
		}
	}
}

$result1 =& Foo::setVar1('something');

$bar = new Foo();
$result2 =& $bar->setVar2('something');
</pseudoCode>

Right now I'm working on an object controller type of class, but I  
can see where I might run into this situation in other areas where  
storing a value in a static function variable or a class variable  
would accomplish much the same thing as far as the calling code is  
concerned.

Any thoughts?

Ed

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