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$this variable is a pointer to the object making the function call. $this variable is not avialable in static methods. We will learn more about static methods in the next series of tutorials.

Example:

class Customer {
 
   private $name;
 
   public setName($name) {
	$this->name = $name;
   }
 
}
 
$c1 = new Customer();
$c2 = new Customer();
 
$c1->setName(“Sunil”);
$c2->setName(“Vishal”);

In the above example, $c1 and $c2 are two separate Customer objects. Each object has its own memory to store names. But if you see the function setName() is common. During run time, how can it make a difference as to which memory location to use to store the function values. Therefore, it uses the $this variable. As mentioned earlier, $this variable is a pointer to the object making a function call. Therefore when we execute $c1->setName(”Sunil”), $this in the setName() function is a pointer or a reference to the $c1 variable.

Related Posts on PHP5 Tutorial - Object Oriented Programming (OOPS)

1. PHP5 Tutorial - Learn to create a PHP5 Class
2. PHP5 Tutorial - Learn to Create a PHP5 Class Object
3. PHP5 Tutorial - Defining Attributes of a PHP5 Class
4. PHP5 Tutorial - Defining Methods of a PHP5 Class
5. PHP5 Tutorial - Creating a PHP5 Constructor __construct()
6. PHP5 Tutorial OOPS - Creating a PHP5 Destructor __destruct()
7. PHP5 Tutorial OOPS - PHP5 Class Access Specifiers - public, private and protected
8. PHP5 Tutorial - $this variable explained
9. PHP5 Tutorial - instanceOf Operator Explained
10. PHP5 Tutorial - Magic Methods - __toString() method
11. PHP5 Tutorial - Magic Methods - __get() and __set()
12. PHP5 Tutorial - Magic Methods - __isset() and __unset()
13. PHP5 Tutorial - Magic Methods - __call() method
14. PHP5 Tutorial - Magic Methods - __autoload() method
15. PHP5 Tutorial - Magic Methods - __sleep() and __wakeup()
16. PHP5 Tutorial - Magic Methods - __clone() method

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