Question

Lets see a basic class:

class A
{
   public function renderSomethingRecursive()
   {
      //this function can call itself
      self::renderSomethingRecursive(); // ERROR!!!!
   }

   abstract public function addSomething (value);
}

class B extends A
{
   public function renderSomethingRecursive()
   {
      throw new Exception ('This time this method must not be called!');
   }

   public function addSomething (value)
   {
      //something, something, something....
      parent::renderSomethingRecursive();
   }
}

$obj = new B();
$obj->addSomething(....);

when I do this, B::renderSomethingRecursive() still gets called, which I dont want… on A:renderSomethingRecursive() method, at self::renderSomethingRecursive(); // ERROR!!!! line calls B::renderSomethingRecursive(); instead of A::renderSomethingRecursive();, which is reasonable since $this is now B and not A… but then I have no idea how to dodge it.

Btw, I know B::renderSomethingRecursive() method should just be removed, but I wanted to keep it as a notice that it mustnt be called by accident. I wanted to make it “private” to make this unavailable, but as we know, its not possible 🙂

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Why have you defined the method in B if you don’t want it to be called. Just don’t define it, and there’s only 1 method PHP can call. That way, you don’t have to use parent::theMethod, you can easily just call it using this->theMethod();

Abstract class A
{
   public function renderSomethingRecursive()
   {
      $this->renderSomethingRecursive(); // no need for self::, that's for static calls
   }

   abstract public function addSomething (value);
}

class B extends A
{
   public function addSomething (value)
   {
      $this->renderSomethingRecursive();//calls the abstract method as though it were defined in class B
   }
}

that’s all, really