Is it possible to create a "Shortcut" class to lead to another?

[Samishii23]

I have a data abstraction class that can get data from 3 different "Types" as they all have the same properties:

class Type {
  private $Tables = array('type1','type2','type3');
   __construct($type,$id) {
      $db->query('SELECT * FROM `'.$this->Tables[$type].'` WHERE `id`='.$id);
      }
   }

Ignoring the obvious faults in the code thats the basic gist of what I have.

Can I do something like this to kinda make a "Shortcut" class?

class FirstType {
   __construct($id) {
      return new Type(0, $id);
      }
   }

The reason I say this, is because in my methods, I'm dynamically calling classes through a function of mine:

function getClass($class) {
   if ( class_exists($class) )
      return new $class();
   else
      return false;
   }

Doing it to save on a large switch block.

So back to the question, can I do this? Or what can I do?

[code green]

I am not quite sure what you mean by types, are they DB types ie MySQL, MsSQL?
But firstly a constructor can only return a class object, so your first idea won't work that way.
Also could your function getClass($class ) not be better served with __autoload? Not everybody likes this I agree.
Maybe what you are trying to do already exists by using Abstract or the other similar one.

[Samishii23]

By types, I mean proprietary to my project. Just internal data types for my project. They all share the same database columns so I figured it was easy to group them together.

What I was doing was this:

class dm { // main program class
   private $dcNames = 'dataClass1,dataClass2...';
   }
$_dc = explode(',', $this->dbNames);
$dc = getClass($_dc[$section]);

Maybe not the best method but a little easier.
The getClass function I'm using is exactly the same as shown above. I saw the method through a Polymorphism tutorial. Though I don't believe my code gets close to what is written there. What they did was an easier way to do:

switch($class) {
   case 'dataClass1': $dc = new dataClass1($id);
   case 'dataClass2': $dc = new dataClass2($id);
   // ...
   }

[johny10151981]

very much possible

follow the example

taken from link

<?php
$instance = new SimpleClass();

// This can also be done with a variable:
$className = 'Foo';
$instance = new $className(); // Foo()
?>

[Samishii23]

@johny10151981: Using the variable to dynamically instance a class is what I am doing. The question is stemming from the first post.

class Type {
  private $Tables = array('type1','type2'); // database tables, but exact same columns
  function __construct($type,$id) {
    // content
    }
  function stuff() { ... }
  }

// Shortcut class
class FirstType {
  function __construct($id) {
    return new Type(1, $id);
    }
  }

$WantFirstClass = new FirstClass(10);
$WantFirstClass->stuff(); // Error here

Should I just extend the Type class? Or what? cause the Type class constructor sets properties and what not, so how would I do that? parent::__const ruct() ???

[code green]

Should I just extend the Type class? Or what? cause the Type class constructor sets properties and what not, so how would I do that?

You can't explicitly return anything from a constructor because a constructor impicitly returns a class object, that is the class in scope.

function __construct($id) { 
    return new Type(1, $id); #Wrong

So yes, I would say FirstType needs to extend Type to access stuff() which needs to be at least protected.
And you do need to explicitly call parent::__const ruct if the child class defines a constructor.
But I can't see what you gain from this idea.
I would be thinking along the lines of an Abstract class Type{} with common member variables and methods,
and variations thereof in child classes.

[Samishii23]

The reason why I'm doing this, is because I have a few data classes that I'm doing to call dynamically, and I am just putting the names into my string reference. Not particular sub types within one of the classes. Or I could rewrite the same exact class 3 times over (69 lines each) or just one with 3 more lines that takes a type parameter and dynamically sets itself up with the right data. If that makes any sense...

[JKing]

Hi there,

It sounds to me like you want to extend the class.
PHP Class Examples

[Samishii23]

Yep, extending worked! :)
Thanks for the help!