varibles clashing in a battle for the princes

[ruach]

I have widdled a few functions that do essentialy the same thing down to one nice 'supe-function'. This function is used multiple times on the same page. My problem is that the 'super-function' variables conflict with the other instances of the same function on the same page. I know that I can use a class but it seems to be a lot of extra overhead. Is there an easier way???

example:

function super_function($query){
  $clashingVariable  = new DB_class;
  $clashingVariable->Query($query);
  while($clashingVariable->Record){
    echo $clashingVariable->Record[0];
  }
}

thanks
-ruach

[figment]

I think, and I could be wrong, but once you declare a new class:
$variable = new class;

its scope is global and it doesnt go away.

You may want to check in the class functions for a way to see if the class has been decpared class_exists or something and make an if statement based on that.