Question

I’m really confused because i have the following case:

Class Game extends CI_Model{
  $this->load->model('user');
  public $user = 'foo';

  $var = $this->user; // Model Or Local Variable?
}

How can i tell which one should it use, the Model User or the local public variable $user?

Answer 1

$this->user is not the same as $user

The model you loaded with $this->load->model('user'); is only accessable through the $this variable. Furthermore, you should only acccess it through the variable scope which the model already is placed in (makes more sense, if you will).

Local method variables, as you’re trying to do with $var = $this->user;, is only accessable through a method.

So, correcting your code, it would look something like this:

Class Game extends CI_Model{

    public function get_player() {
      $this->load->model('user'); // Load the User model

      $user = 'foo'; // Variable with the string value 'foo'.

      $var = $this->user; 
      // $var is a copy of the model you loaded before
      // which means using:
      $name = $this->user->get_username();
      // is the same as
      $name = $var->get_username();

      retun $name;

    }
}