Question

I have this code:

class one{
    public $instance;

    function instance(){
        $this->instance = 'instance was created';
    }

    function execute(){
        $this->instance .= "and something happened";
    }
}

$class = new one;

$class->instance();
$class->execute();

echo $class->instance;

And it does what i expect it to do, but how can i chain actions, for example how could i call these functions in one line:

$class->instance()->execute();

And i know it’s possible to do it like this:

one::instance()->execute();

but in this case i would need to have static functions which makes things complicated, i need some explanation on these things

Answer 1

In order for chaining to work, you need to return $this from each method you want to be chainable:

class one{
    public $instance;

    function instance(){
        $this->instance = 'instance was created';
        return $this;
    }

    function execute(){
        $this->instance .= "and something happened";
        return $this;
    }
}

Also, it’s a bad idea to give properties the same name as methods. It may be unambiguous to the parser, but it’s confusing to developers.