PHP class: Global variable as property in class - php

Question

I have a global variable outside my class = $MyNumber;
How do I declare this as a property in myClass?
For every method in my class, this is what I do:
class myClass() {
private function foo() {
$privateNumber = $GLOBALS['MyNumber'];
}
}
I want this
class myClass() {
//What goes here?
var $classNumber = ???//the global $MyNumber;
private function foo() {
$privateNumber = $this->classNumber;
}
}
EDIT: I want to create a variable based on the global $MyNumber but
modified before using it in the methods
something like: var $classNumber = global $MyNumber + 100;

Answer 1

You probably don't really want to be doing this, as it's going to be a nightmare to debug, but it seems to be possible. The key is the part where you assign by reference in the constructor.
$GLOBALS = array(
'MyNumber' => 1
);
class Foo {
protected $glob;
public function __construct() {
global $GLOBALS;
$this->glob =& $GLOBALS;
}
public function getGlob() {
return $this->glob['MyNumber'];
}
}
$f = new Foo;
echo $f->getGlob() . "\n";
$GLOBALS['MyNumber'] = 2;
echo $f->getGlob() . "\n";
The output will be
1
2
which indicates that it's being assigned by reference, not value.
As I said, it will be a nightmare to debug, so you really shouldn't do this. Have a read through the wikipedia article on encapsulation; basically, your object should ideally manage its own data and the methods in which that data is modified; even public properties are generally, IMHO, a bad idea.

Answer 2

Try to avoid globals, instead you can use something like this
class myClass() {
private $myNumber;
public function setNumber($number) {
$this->myNumber = $number;
}
}
Now you can call
$class = new myClass();
$class->setNumber('1234');

Answer 3

Simply use the global keyword.
e.g.:
class myClass() {
private function foo() {
global $MyNumber;
...
$MyNumber will then become accessible (and indeed modifyable) within that method.
However, the use of globals is often frowned upon (they can give off a bad code smell), so you might want to consider using a singleton class to store anything of this nature. (Then again, without knowing more about what you're trying to achieve this might be a very bad idea - a define could well be more useful.)

Answer 4

What I've experienced is that you can't assign your global variable to a class variable directly.
class myClass() {
public $var = $GLOBALS['variable'];
public function func() {
var_dump($this->var);
}
}
With the code right above, you get an error saying "Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '$GLOBALS'"
But if we do something like this,
class myClass() {
public $var = array();
public function __construct() {
$this->var = $GLOBALS['variable'];
}
public function func() {
var_dump($this->var);
}
}
Our code will work fine.
Where we assign a global variable to a class variable must be inside a function. And I've used constructor function for this.
So, you can access your global variable inside the every function of a class just using $this->var;

Answer 5

What about using constructor?
class myClass {
$myNumber = NULL;
public function __construct() {
global myNumber;
$this->myNumber = &myNumber;
}
public function foo() {
echo $this->myNumber;
}
}
Or much better this way (passing the global variable as parameter when inicializin the object - read only)
class myClass {
$myNumber = NULL;
public function __construct($myNumber) {
$this->myNumber = $myNumber;
}
public function foo() {
echo $this->myNumber;
}
}
$instance = new myClass($myNumber);

Answer 6

If you want to access a property from inside a class you should:
private $classNumber = 8;

Answer 7

I found that globals can be used as follows:
Create new class:
class globalObj{
public function glob(){
global $MyNumber;
return $this;
}
}
So, now the global is an object and can be used in the same way:
$this->glob();

Answer 8

class myClass
{
protected $foo;
public function __construct(&$var)
{
$this->foo = &$var;
}
public function foo()
{
return ++$this->foo;
}
}