Question

I have the following class:

class DB {

    private $name;

    public function load($name) {
        $this->name = $name;
        return $this;
    }

    public function get() {
        return $this->name;
    }
}

At the moment if I do:

$db = new DB();
echo $db->load('foo')->get() . "<br>";
echo $db->load('fum')->get() . "<br>";

This outputs “foo” then “fum”.

However if I do this:

$db = new DB(); 
$foo = $db->load('foo');
$fum = $db->load('fum');
echo $foo->get() . "<br>";
echo $fum->get() . "<br>";

It always outputs “fum”.

I can sort of see why it would do that, but how could I keep the variable seperate to each instance without having to create a new instance of DB?

Answer 1

IF you mean for DB to be some sort of database connectivity object (which I assume you are), multiple instances may not be the best choice. Perhaps something like this may be what you are trying to do:

$db = new DB(); 
$foo = $db->load('foo')->get();
$fum = $db->load('fum')->get();
echo $foo . "<br>";
echo $fum . "<br>";

If what I think you are trying to do is correct, it may be better to separate your get logic from the DB class into its own Record class.

class Record {
    function __construct($name) {
        $this->name = $name;
    }

    function get(){
        return $this->name;
    }

    private $name;
}

class DB {

    public function load($name) {
        return new Record($name);
    }
}

$db = new DB(); 
$foo = $db->load('foo');
$fum = $db->load('fum');
echo $foo->get() . "<br>";
echo $fum->get() . "<br>";