Variable variable class extensions in PHP--is it possible?

Question

Is something like the following possible in PHP?

$blah = 'foo1';

class foo2 extends $blah {
    //...
}

class foo1 {
    //...
}

This gives an error.

I want to dynamically set $blah so I can extend whatever class I want.

Edit: The reason for wanting to do this because I wanted to use a function out of another class in a related class. In the end it would have been something like:

Final extends foo1 extends foo2 extends foo3 extends foo4 extends parent { ... }

In the end I decided to instantiate the other class within the class and use it. Not the best options because they both you 2 of the same classes, but this won't be used that often, so it will work for now.

Answer 1

You're assuming here php executes top to bottom, but it doesn't quite work like that:

<?php
foo();  # works

function foo(){
  print "bar";
}

---

<?php

foo();  #dies

if( $i == 1 )
{
  function foo(){
    print "bar";
  }
}

---

<?php
$i = 1;
if( $i == 1 )
{
  function foo(){
    print "bar";
  }
}

foo(); #works

---

Now, although you can conditionally create classes:

<?php

class A { }
class B { }
if( false ){ 
  class C extends B { 
    public static function bar(){
      print "baz"; 
    }
  }
}
C::bar(); # dies

You cant instantiate one at runtime from a variable:

<?php
class A { }
class B { }
$x = 'B'; 
if( false ){ 
  class C extends $x { 
    public static function bar(){
      print "baz"; 
    }
  }
}
C::bar();
---> Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_VARIABLE, expecting T_STRING in /tmp/eg.php on line 7

There is a way to do it with Eval, but you really don't want to go there:

<?php

class A { }
class B { }
$x = 'B'; 
if( true ){ 
 $code =<<<EOF
  class C extends $x { 
    public static function bar(){
      print "baz"; 
    }
  }
EOF;

  eval( $code );
}
C::bar();
$o = new C; 
if ( $o instanceof $x )
{
  print "WIN!\n";
}
--->barWIN!

However, there is a more important question here:

Why the hell would you want to extend a different class at runtime

Anybody using your code will want to hold you down and whip you for that.

( Alternatively, if you're into whipping, do that eval trick )