Calling Parent Function with the Same Signature/Name

Question

A and B have function with the same signature -- let's assume : foo($arg) -- and that class A extends B.

Now I have an instance:

$a = new A();

$a.foo($data);

Can I also run the parent's (B's) foo() function through $a or was it overridden?

Thanks! Nimi

Answer 1

It is overridden but if you want to use both you can do this:

function parentFoo($arg)
{
    return parent::foo($arg);
}

If you want that the child function calls the parent function do this:

function foo($arg)
{
    $result = parent::foo($arg);
    // Do whatever you want
}

See this URL for more information: http://php.net/manual/en/keyword.parent.php

Answer 2

. is the string concatenation operator in PHP. To call methods, use ->.

To call an overridden method, use parent::method()

class B {
  public function foo($data) {
    echo 'B';
  }
}

class A extends B{
  public function foo($data) {
    parent::foo($data);
    echo 'A';
  }
}

$a = new A();
$a->foo($data); // BA
$b = new B();
$b->foo($data); // B