note 80204 added to language.oop.constructor

@ alexey: My background has also been in more strongly-typed, object oriented languages like Java and C#, so learning PHP has been extremely frustrating at times. Sometimes it feels like PHP is completely the wrong tool for the job (like using a chainsaw to perform brain surgery). The phenomenon you're describing, I think, is a part of a larger difference in how PHP treats the $this variable. It's defined as the first instance of an object it comes across. PHP(4) is really a scripting, functional language so when the child was calling it's parent's constructor in your example, it wasn't really call a constructor, but simply just another function. In fact, the two classes don't even have to be related: <?php class test_class_1 { var $v; function printV1() { echo $this->$v, "<br />"; } } class test_class_2 { var $v; function printV2() { test_class_1::printV1(); } } $c1 = new test_class_1(); $c2 = new test_class_2(); $c1->$v = 1; $c2->$v = 2; test_class_1::printV1(); $c1->printV1(); $c2->printV2(); ?> The output of this should be: 1 2 The first empty line break is due to the printV1 function being called statically, and thus the $this-$v is undefined (though the line break still printed). The "1" that was printed is from a straight-forward function call. For the "2" that was printed, notice that the printV2 function correctly printed $c2's $v value, even though it was calling printV1. test_class_1 isn't even the parent of test_class_2. The $this variable just happened to point to the instance of test_class_2, and test_class_2 just happened to have a defined $v variable. One way to think of it is that all functions are basically just functions and that classes are really just a way to help scope them. ---- Server IP: 208.69.120.35 Probable Submitter: 76.104.183.103 ---- Manual Page -- http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.oop.constructor.php Edit -- https://master.php.net/note/edit/80204 Del: integrated -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/80204/integrated Del: useless -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/80204/useless Del: bad code -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/80204/bad+code Del: spam -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/80204/spam Del: non-english -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/80204/non-english Del: in docs -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/80204/in+docs Del: other reasons-- https://master.php.net/note/delete/80204 Reject -- https://master.php.net/note/reject/80204 Search -- https://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php