PHP 5 private public... what the?

[blueman378]

hi guys, can someone please explain to me how the public and private keyword works for functions and classes in php 5?

[Barand]

http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.visibility.php

[LemonInflux]

In a nutshell, you have various keywords in PHP5 OOP.

 

private, public, abstract, protected etc. etc.

 

private means it can only be accessed by members of that class

public means it can be accessed by the class, parents/children of the class, or completely separate code (in other words, any code anywhere)

abstract means it can only be accessed by inherited classes

protected means it can only be accessed by children and parents of the class

 

For example:

 

<?php

class a {
    private $_variable = 'hi';
    public $var = 'hello';

    private function test() {
        echo 'showing private var $_variable:'. $this->_variable;
    }

    public function testing() {
        echo 'showing test through public function testing()...';
        $this->test();
    }
}

a::testing();   // Works
a::test();       // Doesn't work
$a = new a;
echo $a->_variable; // Doesn't work
echo $a->var;          // Works

?>

 

Excuse errors, I'll try to spot them asap