Bug #829

Assignment to $this

Details

Submitted	2004-02-21 21:22 UTC
From	pear-qa at lists dot php dot net
Assigned	fredericpoeydomenge
Status	Closed
Package	Var_Dump
PHP Version	5.0.0b4 (beta4)
OS	Irrelevant
Roadmaps	(Not assigned)

Comments

[2004-02-21 21:22 UTC] pear-qa at lists dot php dot net

Description:
------------
## from the PEAR QA team ##
## quality-assurance related ##
## PHP 5 compatibility issue ##

Dear package maintainer,

your package makes use of the assignement of new values to $this. This methodis possible in PHP 4 but will throw an error with PHP 5 [1]. Please take care of this issue forPHP5 compatibility reasons.

Please answer to this bugreport directly through the PEAR bug tracker or the mailinglist pear-qa@lists.php.net .

With kind regards,
PEAR QA Team

[1] http://www.php.net/ChangeLog-5.php#5.0.0b4

Reproduce code:
---------------
FILE: '/php/pear/Var_Dump.php' :
/php/pear/Var_Dump.php(275): $this = & new Var_Dump;
/php/pear/Var_Dump.php(302): $this = & new Var_Dump;

Expected result:
----------------
Solutions:

The assignment to $this occurs mostly inside constructors (<Your_Package_Name>()). You should provide an static factory() or singleton() method for this.

To provide backwards compatibility you should work around the affected code pieces. This can be done by a version check:

if (version_compare(phpversion(), "5.0.0") == -1) {
// assign factoried method to this for PHP 4
// $this =& <Your_Package_Name>::factory();
$this =& <Your_Package_Name>::singleton();
} else {
// error handling for PHP5
// user has to use the factory()/singleton() method
}

[2004-04-28 14:36 UTC] frederic dot poeydomenge at free dot fr

Thank you for your bug report. This issue has been fixed
in the latest released version of the package, which you can download at
http://pear.php.net/packages.php

Complete refactoring of the class in v0.9 : the package makes no more use of the assignement of new values to $this, and is using instead singleton/factory constructor.