What exactly is -> for?

[iarp]

I've been taking a look at the coding for Wordpress and PHPBB to see if i could get any ideas, or grasp any concepts from them on how to do things with the website i'm working on. On both pieces of coding i see alot of -> but don't get exactly how they work

 

Is it like:

 

function taxes(cost, taxRate) {

$answer = etc...etc

}

 

$data -> taxes($baseCost, 1.13);

 

?

[Fadion]

Take a look at the manual and ull be enlighted.

[DeanWhitehouse]

isn't a maths function, e.g greater than and less than

[DarkWater]

It's for calling a method or getting a property from an object.

[JustinK101]

isarp:

 

It references a value or method inside of a class. If you have never played with object oriented programming, I would not worry about trying to understand it. Object oriented programming is much more complex and confusing.

[atravotum]

To further that point say you had a class named dog. You could code functions within dog like say bark. So if you wanted to call bark you would use that sign example

 

class Dog {
    public function bark() {
        echo "Roof!";
    }
}

//Then to call it you would say
$dog -> bark();

 

This would echo "Roof!";

[iarp]

To further that point say you had a class named dog. You could code functions within dog like say bark. So if you wanted to call bark you would use that sign example

 

class Dog {
    public function bark() {
        echo "Roof!";
    }
}

//Then to call it you would say
$dog -> bark();

 

This would echo "Roof!";

 

Makes sense, thank you. That first link to the manual just confused the crap outta me 0.o

[JustinK101]

Correction:

 

Actually atravotum: The code should be:

 

class Dog {
    public function bark() {
        echo "Roof!";
    }
}

$dog = new Dog();
$dog->bark();

[atravotum]

I actually read through it to compile the example for you. I have used it in c++ before for pointers i think but that was while ago. The cool thing about classes is you can create new ones on the fly. So if you were making like a pet program to train them you could copy the dog class on the fly and assign it an instance so it can hold variables like health, and weight, and be separate from the other instances of the dog classes. Thats the cool thing about oop (object orientated programming).

[atravotum]

lol sorry, i was assuming that was a given 

[iarp]

My next semester is Java OOP so hopefully all that will make alot more sense, but my first guess saying it called functions was correct.

[atravotum]

Well yes it can, but it can assign values to variables within classes as well. Consider it sorta like " 's ". So dog -> bark() would be like saying dog's bark function. Or dog -> health = 20; Would be like saying Dog's health equals 20. So it is really just to access code more or less within an object or in this case a class.