Constructors & Destructors

PHP 5 allows developers to declare constructor methods for classes. Classes which have a constructor method call this method on each newly-created object, so it is suitable for any initialization that the object may need before it is used.

Note: Parent constructors are not called implicitly if the child class defines a constructor. In order to run a parent constructor, a call to parent::__construct() within the child constructor is required. If the child does not define a constructor then it may be inherited from the parent class just like a normal class method (if it was not declared as private).

<?php
class BaseClass {
   function __construct() {
       print "In BaseClass constructor\n";
   }
}

class SubClass extends BaseClass {
   function __construct() {
       parent::__construct();
       print "In SubClass constructor\n";
   }
}

class OtherSubClass extends BaseClass {
    // inherits BaseClass's constructor
}

// In BaseClass constructor
$obj = new BaseClass();

// In BaseClass constructor
// In SubClass constructor
$obj = new SubClass();

// In BaseClass constructor
$obj = new OtherSubClass();
?>

Destructor

<?php
class MyDestructableClass {
   function __construct() {
       print "In constructor\n";
       $this->name = "MyDestructableClass";
   }

   function __destruct() {
       print "Destroying " . $this->name . "\n";
   }
}

$obj = new MyDestructableClass();
?>