Question

can someone explain why the parent class destructor is being called twice? I was under the impression that a child class could only call a parent’s destructor by using: parent::__destruct()

class test {

    public $test1 = "this is a test of a pulic property";
    private $test2 = "this is a test of a private property";
    protected $test3 = "this is a test of a protected property";
    const hello = 900000;

    function __construct($h){
        //echo 'this is the constructor test '.$h;
    }

    function x($x2){
        echo ' this is fn x'.$x2;
    }
    function y(){
        print "this is fn y";
    }

    function __destruct(){
        echo '<br>now calling the destructor<br>';
    }
}

class hey extends test {

    function hey(){
        $this->x('<br>from the host with the most');
        echo ' <br>from hey class'.$this->test3;
    }
}

$obj = new test("this is an \"arg\" sent to instance of test");
$obj2 = new hey();
echo $obj2::hello;
/*
 the result:
 this is fn x
 from the host with the most 
 from hey classthis is a test of a protected property900000
 now calling the destructor

 now calling the destructor
 */

Answer 1

This only applies if the __destruct method is overridden in the child. For example:

//parent
public function __destruct() {
   echo 'goodbye from parent';
}
//child
public function __destruct() {
   echo 'goodbye from child';
}

… will output:

goodbye from parentgoodbye from child

However, this:

//child
public function __destruct() {
   echo parent::__destruct() . "\n";
   echo 'goodbye from child';
}

Will output:

goodbye from parent
goodbye from child

If you do not override, it calls the parent destructor implicitly.