Getting arguments from another function in PHP class

[kilbey1]

I have a class which does a little database handling, including SQL errors. I'm fairly new to OOP, and what I want to do is call function sql_failure_handler and its arguments from within function die_script, which I intend to use in place of die(). The end result: die_script should call sql_failure_handler and run it in all its glory, while the error message is returned to the user, and the rest of the page loads without die() breaking it.

However, I get the following notices:
Notice: Undefined variable: query in xxx on line 52
Notice: Undefined variable: error in xxx on line 52

I'm not sure what I should change to correct this. (Or perhaps I'm approaching this improperly)

   function sql_failure_handler($query, $error) {
   	   $msg = htmlspecialchars("Failed query: {$query}/nSQL Error: {$error}");

   error_log($msg, 3, "path/to/errorlog");
   //error_log($msg, 1, "[e-mail]");

   if (defined('debug')) {
   	return $msg;
   }	   
   }

function die_script()
{
	$this->sql_failure_handler($query, $error); //line 52
	return "Requested page is temporarily unavilable, please try again later. The administrator has been notified.";
}   

[NogDog]

You need to either pass the $query and $error variables as parameters to the die_scritp() function, or define them as class attributes and access them as $this->query and $this->error.

[kilbey1]

Would you mind pointing me to very basic examples of either of these options so I can wrap my head around this?

You see, I interpret option 1 (most likely interpreting incorrectly) as adding a parameter in another page like so:
$database->die_script("some query", "some error");
...which I don't (think I) want, since the end result should just need to be:
$database->die_script();

As for option 2, I was thinking:
function sql_failure_handler:
$error = $this->error;
$query = $this->query;
function die_script:
$this->sql_failure_handler($query, $error);

Or perhaps I need to do something like this from within die_script():
return sql_failure_handler($this->query, $this->error);

Am I on the right track at all? The other functions in the class are as follows:

   function MySQLDB(){
      /* Make connection to database */
      //$this->connection = mysql_connect(DB_SERVER, DB_USER, DB_PASS) or die(mysql_error());
      $this->connection = mysql_connect(DB_SERVER, DB_USER, DB_PASS) or die($this->sql_failure_handler($this->query($query), mysql_error()));
	  //mysql_select_db(DB_NAME, $this->connection) or die(mysql_error());
	  mysql_select_db(DB_NAME, $this->connection) or die($this->sql_failure_handler($this->query($query), mysql_error()));        

   }

   /**
    * query - Performs the given query on the database and
    * returns the result, which may be false, true or a
    * resource identifier.
    */
   function query($query){
      return mysql_query($query, $this->connection);
   }