Dynamic call to a class

[jkeppens]

Hi all,

it might be a longshot, but I'm going to give it a try :

Suppose I have 3 classes :

MySQLDatabase
PostGresDatabase
MSAccessDatabase

All three extend from a Database class. Depending from the settings I want to use one of the three classes.

I have a variable $dbClass which holds the class to use, e.g. :

$dbClass = "MySQLDatabase";

Is there a way to create an object of the class using the variable, e.g. :

$database = new $$dbClass(); // won't work, is an example

I could offcourse use a switch statement, or name the class Database, and just change the class-file-name (and include the file based on the variable), but I need a way to do it without those tricks.

Is the no function like in java :

Class.getClass("com.jeropolis.MySQLDatabase").getInstance();

which returns an object for a class with a certain name?

Thanks in advance!

JEroen

[jkeppens]

I could offcourse use "eval", but I'd love another way...

eval("\$database = new ".$dbClass."();");

or make a wrapper function :

function loadClass($className) {
eval("\$obj = new ".$className."();");
return $obj;
}

$database = loadClass("MySQLDatabase");