Is this what $this really means?

[cruhmm]

I'm trying to understand $this. Is it some kind of pointer? When I use $this does that really mean "this class' variables" and if so does using the name of another class in it's place
mean that you can use the variables from THAT class. Does this help organize variables between included classes that may have variables of the same name? If so...thank god I sorta understand it now!

[daynah]

'$this->' is a self class pointer.

I believe, the only time you should use is it between functions (or variables) of the same class.

Example:

Class students
{
function scoresAverage($numofstudents)
{
$average = $this->calculateTests();
$average = $average / $numofstudents;
return $average;
}

 function calculateTests()
{ 
      $scores = $test1 + $test2 + $test3;
      return $scores;
}

}

Obviously, this is made up, but I hope you can see the self referancing. Hope that helps. 🙂