--TEST-- Call to date function from a method and call to date method from call_user_func --INI-- date.timezone=UTC --FILE-- date = date_create($in); } public function getYear1() { return date_format($this->date, 'Y'); } public function getYear2() { return call_user_func([$this->date, 'format'], 'Y'); } } $d = new Date('NOW'); var_dump($d->getYear1()); var_dump($d->getYear2()); ?> --EXPECTF-- string(4) "%d" string(4) "%d"