PHP Class

In this tutorial, you shall learn about Classes in PHP, the syntax of a class, how to define a class with members(properties and functions), with the help of example programs.

Class

Class is one of the main aspects of object oriented programming. A class is used to define a custom type with specific properties and behaviour.

Syntax

The syntax to define a class is:

Start with class keyword, followed by a class name, followed by an opening curly brace, then the properties and methods of the class, followed by a closing curly brace, as shown in the following.

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class ClassName {
    //properties

    //methods
}

Rules for writing Class Name

The class name must not be a PHP reserved word.
The class name starts with a letter or underscore. Rest of the classname can be any number of letters, numbers, or underscores.

Example

In the following example, we define a class with class name Person. It has two properties fullname and age, and one method printDetails().

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<?php
  class Person {
    public $fullname;
    public $age;

    public function printDetails() {
      echo "Name : " . $this->fullname . "<br>Age : " . $this->age;
    }
  }
?>

Now, let us create an object $person1 of this class type Person, set its properties, and call a method on this object.

PHP Program

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<?php
  class Person {
    public $fullname;
    public $age;

    public function printDetails() {
      echo "Name : " . $this->fullname . "<br>Age : " . $this->age;
    }
  }
  
  //create object of type Person
  $person1 = new Person();
  
  //set properties of the object with values
  $person1->fullname = "Mike Turner";
  $person1->age = "24";

  //call method on the object
  $person1->printDetails();
?>

Output