Why is it possible to assign data to _not_declared_ vars in a class (PHP 5.0.3)?

[Johannes Findeisen <mailman@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello All,

Why is this working?

<?php

class foobar {
  
   public
       $a,
       $b;

   public function __construct() {
      $this->a = "Hello ";
      $this->b = "world! ";
      $this->c = "Good bye... ";
   }

   public function foo() {
       echo $this->a."<br>";
       echo $this->b."<br>";
       echo $this->c."<br>";     
   }
}

?>

CALL:
$test = new foobar();
$test->foo();

OUTPUT:
Hello
world
Good bye...



If i understand right, all variables should be declared in PHP5. So why 
is it possible to add a membervariable called "c" to the object without 
making a declaration? I got no error with this. I thought E_STRICT 
should show me things like that. Could someone explain me that?

I found this problem by building one dynamic get and set method for all 
member variables with the help of the interceptor method __call() . In 
this method i originally has build a try catch block that looks like this:

<example_code>
try {
   $this->non_existent_member = "FooBar";
} catch (Exception $e) {
   echo "The variable 'non_existent_member' is not declared!";
}
</example_code>

I expected that the try block should catch the ERROR run the catch block 
but this doesn't heppend and and took some time to figure that out. I 
think it is really bad, that this kind of logical error must be catched 
in some way or must be at least reported with E_STRICT on. I am only 
develping with E_STRICT and thought this will give hints to all design 
faults.

Kind regards

Johannes Findeisen


P.S.:  I am going crazy ... This works too:

<?php

class foobar {
  
   public
       $a,
       $b;

   var $bla;

   public function __construct() {
      $this->a = "Hello ";
      $this->b = "world! ";
      $this->c = "Good bye... ";
   }

   public function foo() {
       echo $this->a."<br>";
       echo $this->b."<br>";
       echo $this->c."<br>";     
   }
}

class failover {

   public
       $foobar;

   public function __construct() {

       $this->foobar = new foobar();
       $this->foobar->d = "...all Aliens! ";
  
   }
  
   public function bar() {
  
       echo $this->foobar->a."<br>";
       echo $this->foobar->b."<br>";
       echo $this->foobar->c."<br>";
       echo $this->foobar->d."<br>";
  
   }
}

?>

CALL:
$test = new foobar();
$test->foo();

$test2 = new failover();
$test2->bar();

OUTPUT:
Hello
world!
Good bye...
Hello
world!
Good bye...
...all Aliens!

--
PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/)
To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php