Question

Ok I have a string…

$a_string = "Product";

and I want to use this string in a call to a object like this:

$this->$a_string->some_function();

How the dickens do I dynamically call that object?

(don’t think Im on php 5 mind)

Answer 1

So you the code you want to use would be:

$a_string = "Product";
$this->$a_string->some_function();

This code implies a few things. A class called Product with the method some_function(). $this has special meaning, and is only valid inside a class definition. So another class would have a member of Product class.

So to make your code legal, here’s the code.

class Product {
    public function some_function() {
        print "I just printed Product->some_function()!";
    }
}

class AnotherClass {

    public $Product;

    function __construct() {
        $this->Product = new Product(); 
    }

    public function callSomeCode() {
        // Here's your code!
        $a_string = "Product";
        $this->$a_string->some_function();
    }
}

Then you can call it with this:

$MyInstanceOfAnotherClass = new AnotherClass();
$MyInstanceOfAnotherClass->callSomeCode();