[RESOLVED] Coding virgin seeks assistance !

[leftcase]

Hello folks. I'm new to both coding and php, although not to computing and systems administration.

I've decided to take the leap and attempt to learn some programming :eek: To that end I've been trying to teach myself php and object oriented methodologies. I'm using php5.

This is my first attempt at writing something from scratch. I'm mucking about trying to write to an SQLite database.

<?php
/*
 * Created on 22 Jul 2007
 * Chris testing stuff
 */
class database
{
	public function create()
	//This function creates a SQLite database
	{new SQLitedatabase("sqlitetest.sqlite");}

public function insertTable()
//This function inserts a table. sqlite_exec requires at least 2 inputs - the 
//database handle and the data to go into it. sqlite_open opens the database
{
$dbhandle = sqlite_open('sqlitetest.sqlite');	
$sqlCreateTable = 'CREATE TABLE testtab(id, firstname, lastname)';
sqlite_exec($dbhandle, $sqlCreateTable);
}

public function insertRow()
{

}
}

database::insertTable();

?>

My question is this:

How can I declare $dbhandle = sqlite_open('sqlitetest.sqlite'); just once in the class, and have $dbhandle available to all of the functions in the class. I seem to be having to declare it in every function which seems to be a waste of time.

Thankyou!

[NogDog]

You can create a separate method to do the sqlite_open(), then save its return value as a class variable. That class variable would then be accessible to all other methods.

<?php
/*
* Created on 22 Jul 2007
* Chris testing stuff
*/
class database
{
   // ATTRIBUTES

   private $dbhandle = NULL;

   // METHODS

   // constructor
   // if optional $dbName arg is supplied, automatically call connect method
   public function __construct($dbName = NULL)
   {
      if(!empty($dbName))
      {
         $this->connect($dbName);
      }
   }

   public function connect($dbName)
   {
      $this->dbhandle = sqlite_open($dbName);
   }

   public function insertTable($sqlCreateTable)
   {
      sqlite_exec($this->dbhandle, $sqlCreateTable);
   }
}

// instantiate as object (with optional arg) then call insertTable method:
$db = new database('sqlitetest.sqlite');
$db->insertTable('CREATE TABLE testtab(id, firstname, lastname)');

[leftcase]

Wow thanks man... I've still got a whole lot of learning to do 😉