Posted by ZeldorBlat on 07/30/07 00:33

On Jul 29, 2:19 pm, "Jeff" <it_consulta...@hotmail.com.NOSPAM> wrote:
> PHP 5.2.3
>
> Sorry for that odd title. But what I'm wondering about is assigning values
> stored in a database to class variables. Lets say a class has the variable
> $name and when instantiation of the class this $name variable should get a
> value from the database..
>
> I know it is possible to do a simple select, and fill the $name with the
> returing result.
>
> I'm just wondering if PHP may have a better approach?

You basically just described what you need to do. Any way you slice
it you'll need to query the database, get the value from the result,
and assign it to a class variable.

The only advice I can give you is to separate the construction of your
object from the part that does the database stuff. Many are tempted
to do something like this:

class Foo {
protected $name;

public function __construct() {
//code to get the name from the database
//and set the instance variable

//other stuff that the constructor needs to do
}
}

Obviously that will work, but as a matter of good OOP style you really
should do it like this:

class Foo {
protected $name;

public function __construct() {
$this->initName();
//other stuff that the constructor needs to do
}

protected function initName() {
//code to get the name from the database
//and set the instance variable
}
}

There was actually a very lengthly discussion on this topic recently.

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