$this-> Don't understand

[aim25]

Hi, a few days ago i started reading about oop in php. So i thought id give it a try. Ive gone through all the basic syntax's and scopes and magic methods and all, but one thing i can't get is the "$this" and the "->". Could some one give me an easy laymans definition please.

 

Any help is appreciated, thanks ahead of time.

[akitchin]

$this is a reserved variable name that points to an object from within itself - that is, an object can access its own variable MyVar by using $this->Myvar.  the arrow (->) accesses the various methods and properties of an object.

[jishosan]

To expand on what was explained before:

 

When using $this-> within a class definition for OOP, you are telling the system to reference the specific instance of a class rather than the actual function itself. For instance:

 

<?php

class Bar { 
   var $text;

   function HelloWorld() {
          echo $this->text;
    }
}

$Foo = new Bar;
$Foo->text = "Hello, World! <br>";
$Foo2 = new Bar;
$Foo2->text = "Goodbye, World! <br>";
$Foo->HelloWorld();
$Foo2->HelloWorld();
?>

 

In the code above, we created two instances of the same class. When we called the HelloWorld() function for each class, the $this->text keyword replaced "$this" with the corresponding class name ($Foo and $Foo2).