Question

For example, if let’s say I have a database of users. I have a class that gets information form the database about these users.

I want to make the class “self aware” of it’s own name, like this:

<?php

class UserData {

//[code that fetches the ID number from the variable name, and queries the database for info]

}

$user24 = new UserData;
echo 'Welcome, '.$user24->name.'!';

?>

This code would, ideally, output something like “Welcome, Bob!”, and would change depending on what I named it. Is this possible?

Answer 1

Even if it’s possible (I don’t think so), you shouldn’t. Others would just see a lot of magic and it would be hard to debug. Stick to the standards and known ideas / patterns whenever possible.

Why don’t you want to use:

$user = new UserData(24);

Or even better (because you shouldn’t do any blocking operations in the constructor):

$user = UserData::getById(24);