Is it safe to say...

[ballhogjoni]

is it safe to say that an object is technically an array?

[JonnoTheDev]

Not really - where did you get that idea

[discomatt]

Not at all. Objects are objects, arrays are arrays

 

I know PHP can be redundant at times, but that would just be ridiculous

[Mchl]

Objects in PHP4, where all properties were public, could indeed behave similarly to arrays. Even then, I wouldn't say they're the same.

[ballhogjoni]

Can someone explain the difference then. I got the idea because if you print_r an object or an array it will give you the same structure:

 

object([0]=>somecontent);

array([0]=>somecontent);

[BlueSkyIS]

that's one coincidental example you've got there. one example of a difference is that an object can have internal and external functions.

[ballhogjoni]

internal and external functions.

 

Do you mean something like:

object([0]=>somefunction());

[BlueSkyIS]

this does a much better job explaining things than i can:

 

http://us.php.net/zend-engine-2.php

 

 

simple example:

 

class SomeObject {
     function doSomething () {
          echo "hello world!";
     }
}

$thisObject = new SomeObject();
$thisObject->doSomething;

 

output:

 

hello world!

[Mchl]

Actually

$thisObject->doSomething();

 

I think methods have to be called with parentheses even if there are no required parameters... haven't they?

[BlueSkyIS]

yes. my bad.

 

class SomeObject {
     function doSomething () {
          echo "hello world!";
     }
}

$thisObject = new SomeObject();
$thisObject->doSomething();

[Mchl]

I pretty often do it the other way

i.e. I use

$mysqli->error();

where it should be

$mysqli->error;

[JonnoTheDev]

class myClass {
public $i;

public function __construct() {
  $this->i = 5;
} 

public function i() {
  // method code
  return 2; 
}
}

$x = new myClass();
// will set $y to 5
$y = $x->i;
// will set $y to 2
$y = $x->i();

 

See the differences above. The first is a ref to a class variable.

The second is a class method

[lisa71283]

Actually

$thisObject->doSomething();

 

I think methods have to be called with parentheses even if there are no required parameters... haven't they?

Yes, they do.

[BlueSkyIS]

Actually

$thisObject->doSomething();

 

I think methods have to be called with parentheses even if there are no required parameters... haven't they?

Yes, they do.

 

yes. my bad.

 

class SomeObject {
     function doSomething () {
          echo "hello world!";
     }
}

$thisObject = new SomeObject();
$thisObject->doSomething();