On Mon, Dec 19, 2016 at 3:22 PM, Sam Hobbs <Sam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > What is the "->" operator for functions called? > > At the bottom of PHP: Operators - Manual <http://php.net/manual/en/lang > uage.operators.php> (http://php.net/manual/en/language.operators.php) is > the note: > > "The -> operator, not listed above, is called "object operator" > (T_OBJECT_OPERATOR)." > > It has been down-voted 81 times. Is that because the operator is not > called the "object operator"? Or is it because the note says that the > operator is not listed? > > I apologize if my criticism is not appropriate, but the operator is not > properly documented. The "->" operator should be listed among the other PHP > operators and there should be documentation of it. > > The C++ standard calls the "." and "->" operators the "dot" and "arrow" > operators, correspondingly. For example, see "5.2.4 Pseudo destructor call" > in: > http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2014/n4296.pdf > That is the latest draft of the newest C++ standard. > > PHP can call its "->" operator whatever the designers decide, but there > should be a definition to eliminate the confusion of different names > depending on personal preference. A book I am reading calls the operator > the "arrow operator". Is it called the object operator (as implied by the > tag) or the arrow operator or something else? > There is a difference between a token and an operator, I think people usually confuse the two. The -> is a parser token, indeed called the T_OBJECT_OPERATOR (not sure why that comment was downvoted). Here is a complete list of PHP's parser tokens: http://php.net/manual/en/tokens.php
