One simple advantage of classes is that they prevent naming conflicts with your functions. This is very important when you are sharing code since you don't know what another programmer named their functions. What if you both name a function "get_one_record"? If you use classes, you only need to keep the names of your classes unique. Which then means you can use the same generic function name across all your classes, and you interface within your classes in a consistent manner, only the context changes.
For instance, you may have a class call "companies" and another called "contacts". Within each you may have functions called "get_list", "get_one" and "delete_one". Same function names, but in different classes so they don't conflict. Now you could create a generic interface to view a list, view a record or delete a record. What data is displayed depends on which class you load. The function names are all the same, so you don't need to change your code when you change the context (companies or contacts).
This is hardly a tutorial on OOP. But maybe it will give you an idea of the benefits of using classes.
On Apr 4, 2005, at 12:28 AM, DuSTiN KRySaK wrote:
Novice PHPer, and i am wondering why one would use a function instead of a class (or object)? They seem to server very similar in use.
The way I see it, is a function if for repeated use in a project specific manner, where as a class could be used for many projects.
is this correct?
Although one could just include the function library in multiple projects.
Thanks!
Dustin
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