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[nycphp-talk] PHP 4 Constructor Weirdness

Scott Mattocks scott at crisscott.com
Mon Jan 8 12:35:09 EST 2007


Jay Sheth wrote:
> Hi NYPHPers,
> 
> Here's a question:
> What would you expect to be outputted below (using PHP 4)?
> 
> <?php
>   class xyz{
>    function xyz($id){
>        $this->id = $id;
>    }   
>   }
>   
>   class abc extends xyz{
>       function def($id){
>         parent::xyz($id);    
>       }
>   }
>   
>   $test = new abc(43);
>   echo $test->id;
> ?>
> 
> If you answered 'nothing', you're wrong. It outputs '43'. I'm wondering
> how PHP find that def() is the constructor when instantiating the abc
> class?
> 


It doesn't call def() at all. If you don't provide a constructor for a 
class, PHP calls the parent class's constructor. In this case xyz(). If 
class xyz didn't have a constructor, then you should expect nothing to 
be returned. Try putting an echo into def() to verify what is and is not 
being called.

Scott Mattocks



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