note 60844 deleted from language.oop.constructor by danbrown

Note Submitter: dexen at NOSPAM dot example dot com ---- Destructors aren't supported in PHP, and the sollution of using 'register_shutdown_function()' isn't really suitable for situations when you wan to perform destructor-alike finalization at a PARTICULLAR MOMENT, possibly way before exiting the PHP machine. (or sort of specialized serialization, as it's in my case). Anyway, the general problem is to PROPAGATE a call through a hierarchy of objects, based on NAME PATTERN, in right ORDER (most_derived-to-most_base). Do not rely on INCLUSION of any CODE in derived classes. Do not assume EXISTENCE of any of 'destruction' functions. Do support DEEP inheritance. All i did was to create a _FINI_ function in base class, that calls a 'destructor alike' functions of pattern _%CLASSNAME_. Now, in order to 'destruct' (or serialize) i do $OBJ->_FINI_(); then i can safely unset ($OBJ), all data is already saved to remote storage. So, if ExSOMETHING derives from ExSession, which in turn derives from ExObject, i create _ExSOMETHING_ function in class ExSOMETHING and _ExObject_ in class ExObject. Notice there's no _ExSession_, yet nothing breaks. Code: <?php class ExObject { function _FINI_() { $p = get_class($this); while( $p ) { $px = '_'.$p.'_'; if ( method_exists($this, $px) ) { $this->$px(); } $p = get_parent_class( $p ); } } } ?> You may want to create an interface class Destructable, include _FINI_ in it and derive all relevant classes from it.