Constructor
The constructor is a magic method in a class, which is called at instantiation of an object, with the provided arguments. It is called __construct.
The constructor is an optional method: a class may be created without it. Though, it is very common to have it.
Parent’s constructor are not automatically called, when a child class defines a constructor. They have to be called explicitly.
When a class has a parent, with a constructor, and not constructor itself, then the parent constructor is automatically called, by inheritance.
A constructor may have a visibility, and be not available to the outside. In particular, when creating named constructors, the magic method __construct is usually made private and object instantiation happens in a static method of that same class.
<?php
class Elephpant {
private $trunkLength;
function __construct($value) {
$this->trunkLength = $value;
}
}
$elephpant = new Elephpant(1);
?>
See Also
- What and Why We Should Use PHP Constructors
- PHP OOP Constructor: How It Works in a Class with Examples
- Constructor in PHP: Syntax, Types, Examples