Question

This Class gives me a blank output even if I change return to echo, I’m not sure what the issue is but I’m obviously not that versed in dealing with Classes and Objects.

I’m sure I’m just handling the variables/arrays incorrectly, but I can’t see where, maybe the variables shouldn’t be declared under Class since they should only be returned if a person is created? Should I declare variables in the function, or not declare them at all since they should be handled by $args?

Updated Question: How do I get it to return every argument not just FIRSTNAME?

PHP:

class people_handler
{
    public $firstname;
    public $middlename;
    public $lastname;
    public $city;
    public $province_state;
    /* zip+4 is default for postcode (postal code) */
    public $postcode;
    public $country;

    function create_people($args)
    {
        $fullname=array($this->firstname,$this->middlename,$this->lastname);
        $normname=array($this->firstname,$this->lastname);
        $fulladdress=array($this->city,$this->province_state,$this->postcode,$this->country);
        if(!$args->middlename&&$args->firstname && $args->lastname && $args->city && $args->province_state && $args->postcode && $args->country)
        {
            $temp_arr=array($normname,$fulladdress);
            foreach($temp_arr as $value)
            {
                foreach($value as $values)
                {
                    return $values;
                }
            }
        }
        else if($args->firstname && $args->middlename && $args->lastname && $args->city && $args->province_state && $args->postcode && $args->country)
        {
            $temp_arr=array($fullname,$fulladdress);
            foreach($temp_arr as $value)
            {
                foreach($value as $values)
                {
                    return $values;
                }
            }
        }
        else
        {
            die ("Must enter all values excluding middlename.");
        }
    }
}

$p1=new people_handler;
$p1->firstname="John";
$p1->middlename="Jonah";
$p1->lastname="Jameson";
$p1->city="Lansing";
$p1->province_state="Michigan";
$p1->postcode="48876-4444";
$p1->country="USA";


echo $p1->create_people($p1);

Returns:

John

Answer 1

You’re missing the Object self-reference: $this all over the place.

Anytime you refer to a method or property from within the class, you need to refer to $this as the current instantiation of the Object that is doing the process. So, for instance…

$fullname=array($firstname,$middlename,$lastname);  

becomes

 $fullname=array($this->firstname,$this->middlename,$this->lastname);  

Which should work, since you assigned the values to those properties already.

EDIT: Looking at the code further, constantly returning a value through loops won’t manage the echoing to the browser. You can either echo $value instead of returning it, or build an array from the values and return that and have the script handle the array to echo to the browser.

EDIT THE SECOND: To get all the values out, you need to collect them as you build them. Another option is to simply output them to the browser as part of the method. Both options work, but collecting them into an array makes it more portable, but also a fair bit more code to maintain. As well, you do not need to pass the object into itself to get the method to work.

echo $p1->create_people($p1);

Should be…

$p1->create_people();

In create_people you’ll have…

function create_people()
{
    $fullname=array($this->firstname,$this->middlename,$this->lastname);
    $normname=array($this->firstname,$this->lastname);
    $fulladdress=array($this->city, $this->province_state, $this->postcode, $this->country);
    if($args->firstname && $args->lastname && $args->city && $args->province_state && $args->postcode && $args->country)
    { //Don't bother including middlename if it doesn't matter if it is filled or not...
        $temp_arr = array($normname, $fulladdress);
        foreach($temp_arr as $value)
        {
            foreach($value as $values)
            {
                echo $values;
            }
        }
    } else {
        die ("Must enter all values excluding middlename.");
    }
}

That should work.