PHP syntax problem

[lucerias]

May i know what is the meaning of the following code and what does -> mean? Thank you.

$focus = new Customer(); 
$xtpl->assign("ACCOUNT_ID", $focus->account_id)

[Cep]

From what I can quickly gather,

$focus is a new instance of the object Customer

and the next line is calling the function assign from the class $xtpl and doing something to it with the string "account_id" and and unknown object/var/function from class $focus

[lucerias]

Then what does this "$xtpl->" about? Assign("ACCOUNT_ID", $focus->account_id) can be done independently? Thank you.

[Cep]

it basically means you are using a function, variable or whatever from the class $xtpl for example you might write two functions with the same name but stick on of those functions under the $xtpl class which does something differently so instead of calling,

[code=php:0]
$myvar = resultofmyfunction("pudding");
echo $myvar; // "pudding"
[/code]

You can also call your class version of that function
[code=php:0]
$myvar = $xtpl->resultofmyfunction("pudding");
echo $myvar; // "No more pudding"
[/code]

** Step in guys if you see a mistake here I dont really use classes much myself **

[lucerias]

Sorry guys, i still can't get it, why we need $xtpl? Can you guys tell me based on your what you understand? Thank you.

[Zane]

$xtpl is an object of something you have declared earlier in the code.....or even in an  included file

somewhere, either above this snippet or in an included file you have said something along the lines of
$xtpl = new Something;

and then in the snippet you're making a variable out of the return of a function from that class
$myvar = $xtpl->resultofmyfunction("pudding");

meaning somewhere in the Something class
you have a function named resultofmyfunction