You're almost there, Juan. Just instantiate the variable in the constructor like this:
class Item{
var $dbase;
function Item()
{
$this->dbase = new DBASE;
}
}
The constructor (the function with the same name as the class) gets called automatically when you create a new object.
Or you could just have Item inherit from DBASE, like this:
class Item extends DBASE
{
...
...
}
Then you could call DBASE functions directly, like this:
$this->query($query);
HTH,
Beth