protected function getCountries()
    {
        //Get the countries from the JSON file
        if (sizeof($this->countries) == 0) {
            $this->countries = json_decode(file_get_contents(__DIR__ . '/Models/countries.json'), true);
        }
        
        //Return the countries
        return $this->countries;
    }
protected function getCountries()
    {
        
        if (sizeof($this->countries) == 0) {
            $this->countries = json_decode(file_get_contents(__DIR__ . '/Models/countries.json'), true);
        }
        
        
        return $this->countries;
    }
protected function getCountries ( ) { //Get the countries from the JSON file if ( sizeof ( $ this -> countries ) == 0 ) { $ this -> countries = json_decode ( file_get_contents ( __DIR__ . '/Models/countries.json' ) , true ) ; } //Return the countries return $ this -> countries ; }
Get the countries from the JSON file, if it hasn't already been loaded.

@return array
Get the countries from the JSON file if it hasn t already been loaded .