PHP: get_parent_class

Description

string get_parent_class ( mixed obj )

If obj is an object, returns the name of the parent class of the class of which obj is an instance.

If obj is a string, returns the name of the parent class of the class with that name. This functionality was added in PHP 4.0.5.

Example 1. Using get_parent_class()

<?php class dad { function dad() { // implements some logic } } class child extends dad { function child() { echo "I'm " , get_parent_class($this) , "'s son\n"; } } class child2 extends dad { function child2() { echo "I'm " , get_parent_class('child2') , "'s son too\n"; } } $foo = new child(); $bar = new child2(); ?>
The above example will output:
I'm dad's son I'm dad's son too

User Contributed Notes
get_parent_class

matt-php at DONT-SPAM-ME dot bitdifferent dot com
01-Nov-2004 09:52


PHP (4 at least, dunno about 5) stores classnames in lower case, so:



<?PHP



class Foo

{

}



class Bar extends Foo

{

}



echo get_parent_class('Bar');



echo "\n";



echo get_parent_class('bar');



?>



will output:



foo

foo

radu dot rendec at ines dot ro
07-Apr-2004 08:44


If the argument obj is a string and the class is not defined, then the function returns FALSE.



If the argument obj is an object created from a class with no ancestors (or a string representing a class with no ancestors), then the function returns FALSE.

tim at correctclick dot com
05-Apr-2003 09:48


A slightly more cryptic but faster get_ancestors function:



function get_ancestors ($class) {

            

      for ($classes[] = $class; $class = get_parent_class ($class); $classes[] = $class); 

      return $classes;

        

}



(The second part of the for is implicitly testing for $class != "").  Recursion is considerably slower than looping, so you probably want to use this function.



Hope someone finds it useful.

eric dot brison at anakeen dot com
28-Jan-2002 06:14


To return all ancestors class of an object



function get_ancestors_class($classname) {

  $father = get_parent_class($classname);



  if ($father != "") {



    $ancestors = get_ancestors_class($father);

    $ancestors[] = $father;

  }

  return $ancestors;

}



example :

-----------

Class C  {



}



Class B extends C {



}



Class A extends B {



}

print_r (get_ancestors_class("a"));

print_r (get_ancestors_class("b"));



example result :

---------------

Array

(

    [0] => c

    [1] => b

)

Array

(

    [0] => c

)