Question

I would like to know whether there’s a way to chain methods on a newly created object in PHP?

Something like:

class Foo {
    public function xyz() { ... return $this; }
}

$my_foo = new Foo()->xyz();

Anyone know of a way to achieve this?

Answer 1

In PHP 5.4+, the parser’s been modified so you can do something like this

(new Foo())->xyz();

Wrap the instantiation in parenthesis, and chain away.

Prior to PHP 5.4, when you’re using the

new Classname();

syntax, you can’t chain a method call off the instantiation. It’s a limitation of PHP 5.3’s syntax. Once an object is instantiated, you can chain away.

One method I’ve seen used to get around this is a static instantiation method of some kind.

class Foo
{
    public function xyz()
    {
        echo "Called","\n";
        return $this;
    }

    static public function instantiate()
    {
        return new self();
    }
}


$a = Foo::instantiate()->xyz();

By wrapping the call to new in a static method, you can instantiate a class with method call, and you’re then free to chain off that.