[thelist] basic OO php question

[Brooking, John]

> From: "Rick den Haan" <rick.denhaan at gmail.com>
>
> If I call a class (Y) from within another class (X), is it possible to
> access properties of X from within Y without have Y extend X?

If you are using PHP5, class members can be public, among other
scopes[0]. So in your example, instead of

   var $foo = "bar";

inside of class X, use

   public $foo = "bar";
   
Then this code:

   x = new X();
   echo $x->foo;
   
outputs "bar", as you want. Note that you still need to instantiate an
object of class of X. Alternately, if the value of $foo will never
change, you can declare it as a class constant[1] and access it as
X::foo with having to instantiate it.

Note that it's considered better OO practice to have private members
that can be read and changed by accessor functions than to have pubic
members, but that's what you asked. The accessor function method
protects the data better, which is one of the goals of the OO style.

[0] http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.visibility.php
[1] http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.constants.php
   
- John
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