#32654 [NEW]: Magic __parent property (or method)

From: bart at mediawave dot nl Operating system: Any PHP version: 5CVS-2005-04-10 (dev) PHP Bug Type: Feature/Change Request Bug description: Magic __parent property (or method) Description: ------------ When writing code with complex object structures I often need a reference to the parent object. Let's say we have an object "parent" that has a property which is an object "child": class parentClass { var $child; var $dummyVar; function __construct() { $this->child = new childClass($this); $this->dummyVar = 'hello'; } } class childClass { var $parent; function __construct($parent) { $this->parent = $parent; echo $this->parent->dummyVar; } } $example = new parentClass; // prints: hello I very often need to create my code like this because I very often need to be able to have a reference to the parent object of an object. Shouldn't PHP have such a reference by default? There could always be a Magic reference like: $myParent = $this->__parent; Or maybe a Magic method: $myParent = $this->__parent(); This would then always return the parent object or eventually reach the main script scope. -- Edit bug report at http://bugs.php.net/?id=32654&edit=1 -- Try a CVS snapshot (php4): http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32654&r=trysnapshot4 Try a CVS snapshot (php5.0): http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32654&r=trysnapshot50 Try a CVS snapshot (php5.1): http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32654&r=trysnapshot51 Fixed in CVS: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32654&r=fixedcvs Fixed in release: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32654&r=alreadyfixed Need backtrace: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32654&r=needtrace Need Reproduce Script: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32654&r=needscript Try newer version: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32654&r=oldversion Not developer issue: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32654&r=support Expected behavior: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32654&r=notwrong Not enough info: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32654&r=notenoughinfo Submitted twice: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32654&r=submittedtwice register_globals: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32654&r=globals PHP 3 support discontinued: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32654&r=php3 Daylight Savings: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32654&r=dst IIS Stability: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32654&r=isapi Install GNU Sed: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32654&r=gnused Floating point limitations: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32654&r=float No Zend Extensions: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32654&r=nozend MySQL Configuration Error: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32654&r=mysqlcfg