$This or Object Instance?

jesuslover037

Hey guys, I'm making a new site and want to get out of the practice of bad coding habits. In the past, whenever I wanted to reference a function, I would make an object of that class. For example,


Class clsSomeClass

function DoSomething()
     {
            $objclsSomeClass = new clsSomeClass();

        $objclsSomeClass->SomeOtherFunction();
 }

function SomeOtherFunction
     {
            //DO SOMETHING
     }

I've noticed some people would use "$this" and not define a class instance since it's already within that class. Is this the most efficient way to do this. Is my way just wasting system memory? Thanks, any input would be greatly appreciated.

NogDog

Unless there is some specific reason to have an instance of a class within itself, it seems like a waste of resources (and coding time 🙂 ). The only case I've run into so far where I have had a class instantiate itself is when creating a singleton pattern class.

Weedpacket

jesuslover037 wrote:
In the past, whenever I wanted to reference a function, I would make an object of that class

Assuming that practice works at all, it sounds like these aren't even instance methods. If they were, you'd have perpetual grief because these temporary objects won't have any of the properties that $this has. If your approach hasn't caused problems in the past then that would suggest you're missing the point of having objects.

It sounds like they're class methods that don't depend on any of the current object's properties. In which case they should be declared static

static function SomeOtherFunction()
{
....
}

and called

clsSomeClass::SomeOtherFunction();

khaine

I am with the $this camp. It is also easier at a glance to know where the function is coming from. $this is always internal to the current class so you don't need to go looking for another class.

darkerstar

The difference is obvious.

$this is the object it self, in the object's code, it most likely use the data within itself.

You can create the same object within itself, there is nothing to stop that. But it won't be the same object instance. An example of this is, say a tree like child objects.

jesuslover037

Thanks guys, $this helped alot lol.