The 'this' variable

Once inside an object's function, you have complete access to its variables, but to set them you need to be more specific than just using the variable name you want to work with. To properly specify you want to work with a local variable, you need to use the special $this variable, which PHP always sets to point to the object you are currently working with.

For example:

function bark() {
    print "{$this->Name} says Woof!\n";
}

Whenever you are inside a function of an object, PHP automatically sets the $this variable contains that object - you do not need to do anything to have access to it.

 

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