note 93687 added to language.oop5.abstract

There isn't really that much of a great hurdle in understanding these things, there really isn't. If you're defining a new class that is abstract, it means that you can make some non-abstract functions that you can use to define the general underlying behavior of that class along side abstract ones. In interfaces, you can't do that since functions defined therewithin cannot have a body. Abstract functions you use for classes that must define more specific behavior when "extending" your class. So for a crude example - define by your non-abstract functions how that particular object (which may be part of a larger class hierarchy) would store and process it's data in SQL, XML, etc. Then define abstract functions which allow someone implementing that class to specifically manipulate the data that is to be stored. Then require a format which this data must be returned in, and then in your non-abstract functions call those functions on destruction, in normal runtime, and so on. Again, non-abstract functions, or even another class could implement the finer points of ensuring that data is in the correct format, and so on, ad infinitum. It isn't too much of a reach to say that if you used a normal class instead of an abstract class, then there isn't much intrinsic requirement between the two classes. Assuming that you wanted the functions to use each-others functions and you'd need to use them specifically by name, you'd have to write some code which checked to see -- lamely using function_exists() and other lamery -- if that class has the function you require for interoperability, when you could avoid all possible confusion and headaches by simply using the right tool for the job. And reading a decent OOP book. ---- Server IP: 208.69.120.35 Probable Submitter: 82.3.243.233 ---- Manual Page -- http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.abstract.php Edit -- https://master.php.net/note/edit/93687 Del: integrated -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/93687/integrated Del: useless -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/93687/useless Del: bad code -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/93687/bad+code Del: spam -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/93687/spam Del: non-english -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/93687/non-english Del: in docs -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/93687/in+docs Del: other reasons-- https://master.php.net/note/delete/93687 Reject -- https://master.php.net/note/reject/93687 Search -- https://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php