Re: Class privacy and variable identifiers

# morse@cems.umn.edu / 2006-10-23 15:07:29 -0500: > i) Does the language provide a way to generate a private or > local class that is accessible only within another function > or a parent class. no > Does PHP 5 supply a good way to generate a little utility class > without polluting the public namespace? no > Or are local variables in functions, class methods and class > properties the only entities that can be hidden from public access? yes > ii) Suppose I would like to be able generate any of several > classes at runtime, for which constructor interfaces are the > same. These might, for example, be specialized subclasses of > a common parent. Based on the idea of a variable variable, > I am tempted to try to replace the class name by a variable, > as in > > $object = new $class_name_variable($param1,$param2,....) that's even an idiom, although I'd urge you to use try { $rc = new ReflectionClass($class_name_variable); $object = $rc->newInstance($param1, $param2); // ... } catch (ReflectionException $e) { // handle it } since $o = new $cls may result in fatal error. > Is this legal PHP 5? hard to tell, the only thing that defines "legal" PHP is the grammar implementation (there's no spec). other than that... it's worked for years, probably will. > $object_instance->$property_name_variable > $object_instance->$method_name_variable() both work > The idea of a 'variable variable' name seems quite useful, > but I'm not sure how general the concept is. Is there a > well-defined rule for when the parser will accept a string > value of a variable as a replacement for a literal > identifier. If so, is the rule documented? if it's not in http://php.net/manual/en/langref.php, then no. -- How many Vietnam vets does it take to screw in a light bulb? You don't know, man. You don't KNOW. Cause you weren't THERE. http://bash.org/?255991