I want to have a static method in a parent class that creates instances of whatever subclass i call this method on.
An example to make this more clear:
class parent {
public static method make_objects($conditions){
for (...){
// here i want to create an instance
// of whatever subclass i am calling make_objects on
// based on certain $conditions
}
}
}
class sub extends parent{
...
}
$objects = sub::make_objects($some_conditions);
As of php 5.3 you can use the static keyword for this
<?php
class A {
public static function newInstance() {
$rv = new static();
return $rv;
}
}
class B extends A { }
class C extends B { }
$o = A::newInstance(); var_dump($o);
$o = B::newInstance(); var_dump($o);
$o = C::newInstance(); var_dump($o);
prints
object(A)#1 (0) {
}
object(B)#2 (0) {
}
object(C)#1 (0) {
}
edit: another (similar) example
<?php
class A {
public static function newInstance() {
$rv = new static();
return $rv;
}
public function __construct() { echo " A::__construct\n"; }
}
class B extends A {
public function __construct() { echo " B::__construct\n"; }
}
class C extends B {
public function __construct() { echo " C::__construct\n"; }
}
$types = array('A', 'B', 'C');
foreach( $types as $t ) {
echo 't=', $t, "\n";
$o = $t::newInstance();
echo ' type of o=', get_class($o), "\n";
}
prints
t=A
A::__construct
type of o=A
t=B
B::__construct
type of o=B
t=C
C::__construct
type of o=C
I think you want something like this:
class parent {
public static function make_object($conditionns) {
if($conditions == "case1") {
return new sub();
}
}
}
class sub extends parent {
}
Now you can create an instance like this:
$instance = parent::make_object("case1");
or
$instance = sub::make_object("case1");
But why would you want all the sub classes to extend the parent? Shouldn't you much rather have a parent for your models (sub classes) and then a factory class, that creates the instances for this models depending on the conditions given?
Umm, wouldn't that be:
class sub extends parent {
public static function make_objects($conditions) {
//sub specific stuff here
//....
}
}
make the parent class an abstract class and make the parent method also an abstract
abstract static class parent {
abstract function make_method() {
// your process
}
}
class child extends parent {
public function __construct() {
parent::make_method();
}
}
extends? Plus, I don't really understand what you want to do. Can you give a more telling example about whatmake_objectsreturns?