Are classes and objects the same thing in PHP? - php

Question

Just starting out with OOP in PHP and in general. From what I have been reading so far the two seem to be synonyms. Is this the case, and if not, practically speaking when people refer to objects and classes do they generally use the terms interchangeably?

Answer 1

Typically one would refer to an object as an instance of a class.
So you have some class Employee.
class Employee {
var $name;
function get_name ( ) { return $this->name; }
function set_name ($new_name) { $this->name = $new_name; }
}
And you declare an instance of it like:
$assistant = new Employee();
Employee is a class. $assistant is an object, that is an instance of the Employee class.
So to answer your question - a class is not an object. You create an object when you instantiate a class.

Answer 2

objects and classes do they generally use the terms interchangeably?
No. As in other OOP languages, classes are like the blueprints for something, say a house. Objects are the actual house after it's built. Very different things indeed.
// blueprint
class House
{
public $color;
public function __construct($color = 'red')
{
$this->color = $color;
}
}
// make red house
$redHouse = new House();
// make blue house
$blueHouse = new House('blue');
// Now we have two different houses (objects) made from the same blueprint (class)

Answer 3

They're certainly not synonymous, and if you've been reading that, it's time to change the book! :-)
Classes are types, while objects are instances.
A simple example is an integer. "Integer" denotes the type, but an integer $x is an instance of that type. In PHP there isn't a strong type system, so this may not be entirely apparent, but I hope you get the idea. Similarly, array is a type, but $v = array(); creates an instance (called $v) of array type.
With classes, you cannot just say $y = MyClass(); as you do with arrays, instead, you have to use new: $y = new MyClass();.

Answer 4

A class is a definition of an object. An object is an instance of a class. For example:
class Parser {
public function parse() {}
}
...is a class. You might say "The Parser class can be used to parse text."
$p = new Parser;
Now, $p is an object. It is an instance of the Parser class.
This is particularly important with the static keyword. Static methods and members belong to classes, not objects.
class Parser {
public static $type;
public $text;
}
$p1 = new Parser;
$p2 = new Parser;
$p1::$type = 'php';
$p1->text = 'sometext';
$p2->text = 'someothertext';
echo $p2::$type; //echos "php"
echo $p1->text; //echos "sometext"

Answer 5

You can remove the in php from your question and it is still the same thing.
A class defines an Object for example
class Person {
}
is a class that defines an person object.
The distinction get more important when you start creating class methods and object methods
class Person {
function hair_color(color) {
hair_color = color;
}
}
is an object method in php you could do something like this
austin = new Person()
austin -> hair_color("brown")
now you can have something like
class Person {
total = 0;
static function total_in_class() {
total++;
}
}
now that is an class method it affects all objects of the same class
that way
austin = new Person();
austin -> total_in_class
tom = new Person();
echo tom->total
Now if my php isn't that rusty then it should echo 1. That is because all objects in the class are affected
In ruby it would look as follows
class Person
def hair_color(color)
hair_color = color;
end
def self.total_in_class()
total+=1
end
end
Similar and same concepts apply