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Posted by nephish on 08/17/06 13:00
Jerry Stuckle wrote:
> nephish wrote:
> > Hey there all.
> >
> > i have been looking to simplify my huge website that i wrote while
> > learning php.
> > now its a spaghetti mess. So, i wanted to simplify it.
> > Now, i see the functionality that defining functions can give me. But
> > what is the magic behind classes?
> > i mean, the documentation i find. Most use the class Person as the
> > example. So how would having a person class help me. It seems that i am
> > writing more code than less because i am passing values thru a class
> > instead of directly updating a database.
> >
> > for example: if i have a class Customer
> >
> > $john = new Customer;
> >
> > $john->name = 'john';
> >
> > then the class updates the database with a new customer named john.
> >
> > why not just send sql an insert to do this ?
> >
> > just not getting it, but i know the advantages are there, could someone
> > help me.
> >
> > thanks much
> > shawn
> >
>
> Hi, Shawn,
>
> Yes, you do end up writing more code the first time. However, one of
> the advantages is you only do it once. You can then use that class
> multiple times and not have to rewrite that code each time.
>
> It also allows you to forget about the internals of the object and
> concentrate more on the problem at hand.
>
> For instance - if I want to display a list of customers in Washington,
> DC, (from a database), I could do something like:
>
> $db = new Database(); // config file stores user, pw, db, etc.
> $clist = new CustomerList(db); // Create a new list object
> $clist->fetch(array('city'=>'Washington', 'state'=>'DC'));
> $list = $clist->getArray(); // Fetch the list as an array of Customer
> foreach ($list as $customer) {
> echo "<tr><td>" . $customer->getName() . "</td>\n";
> echo "<td>" . $customer->getAddress() . "</td>\n";
> ... etc.
> }
>
> I don't' know how the database connects - in fact I don't even know
> which database I'm using, nor do I care.
>
> I don't have to worry about the SQL required to fetch a list of
> customers. I just know my function takes an array of key=>value pairs;
> the key is attribute I'm looking for (documented in the class itself)
> and the value is the actual value I want.
>
> And I don't even know what the internal representation of the Customer
> is (although it's probably pretty obvious just from the data). But the
> important thing is I don't have to worry about it.
>
> So, instead of having to worry about how to access the database, fetch
> my data, possibly reformat the data (is it stored as "name" or
> "first_name/last_name"?) or any of the rest.
>
> It also means I can change databases or even use a flat file just by
> changing the classes involved. The rest of the program doesn't care.
>
> Hope this helps some.
>
> --
> ==================
> Remove the "x" from my email address
> Jerry Stuckle
> JDS Computer Training Corp.
> jstucklex@attglobal.net
> ==================
yep, that helps, i can see certainly that in the future having to
extend what i am writing now, so this is definatly the way to go.
Thanks a lot for your post.
-sk
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