Question

public function setAlbumTable(AlbumTable $albumTable)
{
$this->albumTable = $albumTable;
return $this;
}

I am talking about first parameter ( it’s not parameter btw) looks like datatype ? what is it ? constant ? I encounter this when trying to develop app in zend framework 2

Answer 1

This is PHP’s type hinting. It means that the first parameter to this function – $albumTable – must be an instance of the AlbumTable class or a class that inherits from it.

class Car {}

class BlueCar extends Car {}

function drive_the_car(Car $car) {}

drive_the_car(42); // error, first parameter must be an instance of Car

drive_the_car(new stdClass()); // error

drive_the_car(new Car()); // works

drive_the_car(new BlueCar()); // works