Hello everyone.

I am pretty new to oop, so this might be a simple question.

I need to get data from my database and I need it in several different places on my site. So I decided to create a class to get the data instead of writing it over and over again.

now, the method i created is nothing but a mysql query and a while loop to get the variables:

function getGroupData(){

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM groups ")
or die(mysql_error());

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)){



	$id = $row["id"];
	$groupname = $row["groupname"];
	$groupurpose = $row["groupurpose"];
	$groupmessage = $row["groupmessage"];

}
}

of course this sits inside a class and there is a "connect to my db.php" included...

the problem is that the variables (i.e $id, $groupname etc...)do not seem to exist outside of the method.
How can I use them in other methods and outside the method? I need a solution that can handle methods which create dozens of variables.

even if I declare them global (i.e global $id; global $groupname; etc...) before the mysql query, they still don't exist outside the method.


Thank you for your help!

One solution would be to return them as an array from your function, like this:

function getGroupData() {
  $return_value = array();
  $result = mysql_query('SELECT * FROM groups') or die(mysql_error());
  while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
    $return_value[] = $row;
  }
  return $return_value;
}

$data = getGroupData();
print_r($data);

Returning an array makes most sense for a 'getter' method. You can also create class properties to hold the information:

class Model_Group {

  public $groups = array();

  public function getGroupData()
  {
    // Check if property was already initialized earlier.
    if(!empty($this->groups)) return $this->groups;  

    $return_value = array();
    $result = mysql_query('SELECT * FROM groups') or die(mysql_error());
    while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
      $return_value[] = $row;
    }
    $this->groups = $return_value;  // store in property for future retrieval.
    return $return_value;
     
  }
}

Thank you both for your help. But I'm not sure I understand how to use your solution. (As I said, I am new to OOP). Could you show me how to retrieve the variables outside the method? And how do I send them to other methods in the class?

Thank a lot!

here for ur last reply .. hope can help
to access the variable just refer the it by

$yourCLasssinstance->yourVariable;

and for returning function

$watEver = $yourCLasssinstance->yourMethod();

and if u mean how to use the vars outside the method but in same class
you need to declare them in the class header out side the methods
and then use

$this->maVariable;

where $this is always refer to ur class instance it self
hope u got it
good luck

Building on madCoder's nice example:

<?php
class Model_Group {
 
  public $groups = array ();
 
  public function getGroupData()
  {
    // Check if property was already initialized earlier.
    if(! empty($this->groups)) 
      return $this->groups;  
 
    $result = mysql_query('SELECT * FROM groups') or die(mysql_error());
    while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
      $this->groups[] = $row; // store in property for future retrieval.
    }
  }
  
  public function Test()
  {
    // You should connect to the database first
    $this->getGroupData();
    print_r($this->groups);
  }
}

$object = new Model_Group();
$object->Test();

// you can also do
// print_r($object->groups);
?>
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