note 54284 added to language.oop.constructor

Responding to zax AT email DOT cz and others on the topic of pass/fail tests in constructors. Later versions of PHP don't allow $this = null, so that's out. Using unset($this) is allowed but is not reliable. Consider the following: class a { function a($pass) { if (!$pass) unset($this); } } echo ($a = new a(true) ? "Passed" : "False") . "\n"; echo ($a = new a(false) ? "Passed" : "False") . "\n"; The output: False False However, if you add a member variable to the class and run the same script, the output becomes: Pass Pass Basically the object evaluates to false if there are no member variables, otherwise true. I'm guessing, but I believe calling unset($this) only unsets the reference to the object. A copy of it is still passed back to the calling code. To sum up, I would stick with the original recommended solution of having a property specifically to represent an object's status: initialized or failed. class A { var $success; function A() { if (/* some fail test */) $this->success = false; // rest of your construct } } ---- Manual Page -- http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.oop.constructor.php Edit -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=edit+54284 Delete: added to the manual -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+54284&report=yes&reason=added+to+the+manual Delete: bad code -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+54284&report=yes&reason=bad+code Delete: spam -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+54284&report=yes&reason=spam Delete: useless -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+54284&report=yes&reason=useless Delete: non-english -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+54284&report=yes&reason=non-english Delete: other reasons -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+54284&report=yes Reject -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=reject+54284&report=yes Search -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php