Good programming practice

[paul2010]

Just a few questions about good programming practice in PHP coming from a Java background.

 

How important are getter and setter functions or is it acceptable to use to just have a variable set to public?

 

what is the scope of a variable inside  a private a function?

 

is it best to declare all variables as private and when using them inside a function use $this->name ?

 

Thanks

[trq]

How important are getter and setter functions or is it acceptable to use to just have a variable set to public?

 

In any language it's better to provide a clear interface using methods rather than properties in my opinion.

 

what is the scope of a variable inside  a private a function?

 

Variables created within a function (or a method) are only available within said function.

 

is it best to declare all variables as private and when using them inside a function use $this->name ?

 

Often it is best to keep the inner workings of a class private. If you don't need access to the variable from outside of an object, it should be private. Even then, I would suggest still keeping variables private and creating getter setters.

[paul2010]

Thanks for your reply.

 

Do variables need to be unset after they are finished with or will PHP do that automatically?

 

Thanks

[trq]

PHP will of course take care of that for you. I know of no language where you would need to do such a thing.

[paul2010]

PHP will of course take care of that for you. I know of no language where you would need to do such a thing.

 

I was hoping that would be the case. But I think that objective c likes you to release all variables as part of memory management?

 

Thanks