What is Object Oriented Programming in PHP?

An object-oriented programme an approach imagines development.  everything in the form of objects like wheels, steering, gears, etc. Similarly, the object-oriented approach is used in our software development.It is a programming model based on objects containing data (attributes) and methods (functionality) that work on that data. Objects are data types defined by the programmer, and interaction between different objects is also defined by the programmer.

In other words, object-oriented programming allows programmers to group similar tasks into classes; a class may have data and the functions to access that data tied together and not visible from the outside.

The main benefit of an object-oriented approach is that it makes code easier to use and keep up to date.It doesn’t matter if you’ve used the OOP before or not; I’ll explain it in a much simpler way, including how and why to use it.

OOP basically focuses on designing and programming individual classes, how objects behave, and granting access to the datatypes.

Note: OOP is not difficult to learn, but the difficult part is learning how to programme well in itbecause most of the programmers,new to OOP, come from a procedural background.

In PHP 5, a major change from PHP 4 is that it contains a full object model for more features and better performance. Some of the important new features added in PHP 5 are final and abstract methods and classes, interfaces, cloning, and magic methods. We have covered all these in our PHP OOP tutorial series with practical examples. In object-oriented programming, an object is treated just like a reference or handle, which means every new variable has a reference to the object and not a copy of the entire object.

When we talk about object-oriented PHP, the most difficult thing to learn and understand are the basics of object-oriented programming, as they are different from usual PHP programming. However, once the basics are clear, the model becomes easy and enjoyable. This is the easiest, simplest, and most comprehensive PHP OOP tutorial on the web, explaining everything in detail, from classes to objects, constructors to destructors, inheritance and interfaces, access modifiers, and so on. This is one place to grasp PHP OO concepts once and for all in a simple way. It is commonly observed that oop in PHP causes confusion for php programmers because it is a new style for them.We will cover Oops concepts in PHP that are simple to understand.

Concepts of Object-Oriented Programming

Class: A class is a template that contains a collection of members like variables, functions, constructors, etc. A class has data and functions to operate on that data. This data and functions are usually private, which means they are not visible outside the class for data security. A class is a template or blueprint to make as many copies or instances as required.

By making an instance or object reference to the class, you can call on the members of the class.

Object: An object is nothing but an instance of a class. You can define many objects as classes. When a class is instantiated, an object is created. If a class is a blueprint, then an object is the final product of that blueprint. Once a class is defined, as many objects can be created from that class as needed.

Member Variable: A member variable is defined inside of a class. The data that is in the member variables is limited to the class and can be accessed by the members (functions) of the class. Actually, it is the data contained in this class that can be modified by functions of this class only. Usually, member variables are only visible to that class and are hidden from other classes.

Member Function: A member function contains a collection of statements. It is defined inside the class and used to simply access object data. These are usually private and not visible to other classes. They are used to modify member variables. In other words, they are helpful in accessing data about an object.

Inheritance: The process of creating a new class based on an existing class is nothing but inheritance. The new class is called a child class, and the existing class is called a parent class.

In OOP, inheritance is a process in which a class (a “subclass”) gets all the attributes and functions of another class (a “superclass”).

Polymorphism: This concept states that the same function can exist in multiple forms.The name of the function can be the same, but it may contain a different argument structure or a different number of arguments.

It is a phenomenon in object-oriented programming in which the same function can be used for different purposes.

Overloading is a part of polymorphism, which allows us to create different methods by differentiating the number of parameters in the functions.

Data Abstraction: Data in a class that has been hidden or abstracted.

Encapsulation: The process of binding data members and member functions in the class is called encapsulation. Data and the functions that work on that data are tied together and not visible to other functions.

Constructor: It is a function called automatically when we create an object reference or instance for the class. It is used to initialise class members.

The function Object() {
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} is actually a special type of member function. When a class is instantiated and an object is created, this function is called automatically and it assigns some initial values to data members.

Destructor: It is a special type of function that is called automatically when an object is deleted.

Abstraction: Abstraction means that the implementation details of functions or classes are not visible.

Overloading: An oop term in which functions having the same names but different numbers of arguments perform differently.

Some major advantages of OOP and how it is more efficient than a procedural approach

PHP OOP Benefits:

Reusability of code:

In OOP, code is easy to organize, maintain, and reuse, which leads to much neater code. Separate components or modules could also be programmed in OOP and perform a specific task. OOP is perfectly suited for code reusability and eliminates the chances of code duplication as much as possible. The major purpose of developing this approach was to reduce unnecessary or unused coding, which definitely reduces project programming time and hence the budget required. Objects have eliminated the concept of cut, paste, and adapting existing code. Functional programming is also a good approach in terms of usability. Please take a look at Interface Design and Composition and see how OOP components could be reused. {loadposition chitika}

Suitable for designing distributed systems:

The OOP UML paradigm is useful in designing distributed systems or frameworks with a large number of entities that interact with the user (for example, a web application).The object-oriented approach is more modular in nature and thus more suitable for distributed systems. It is also ideal for instances where too many developers are involved in the programming of an application. Some people believe that in distributed systems, OOP takes more development time than a structured approach, but it has a lot of advantages in the long run, and this delay only occurs once in the application programming.

Automatic use of memory:

OOP is good because it uses garbage collection during the execution of a program. In a structured approach, a problem in memory is manually debugged and corrected. You can see manual memory allocation in languages without automatic memory management, like the C language, which uses different built-in functions to do so when they are called in the code. It is up to the programmer to reserve memory as needed and to release it when he determines that doing so will not have a negative impact on the program’s or software’s operation.Not all OOP languages provide garbage collection.

Best in modification and error handling:

Because OOP code is organized, it is much easier to modify or add more features to a class than to a piece of structured code.Similarly, the error reporting capability of OOP code is also very good. Assume you’re working on a project and the client’s requirements have changed at some point.Then, if you are using OOP, modification would be very easy.

as there are well-defined objects, with data and functions usually being private. OOo has fewer bugs because there are clear communication pathways and no wandering data or methods.Hence, object-oriented programming is the ultimate solution for new systems. And the PHP OOP tutorial is a free, comprehensive tutorial for you to learn all the tricks of the trade. So, begin by clicking Next for the PHP class.Best wishes on your Object-oriented programming in PHP journey!

Better Architecture, Neat, and Clean Code:

Object-oriented PHP is better catalogued and easily packaged, creating a wonderful architecture. Usually, each class is saved in a separate file. Procedural languages have a complex spaghetti-like code that is very difficult to spot or understand the functionality of a certain characteristic or data member. In oop, due to the implementation of objects, their private data and members, and a clear understanding of communication between objects, the code is nice and clean.

The major objective of OOP is to write cohesive, neat, and clean code. It is ideal for developing huge libraries and frameworks, as it has made maintaining and customising existing code so much easier. Data encapsulation and inheritance aspects of OOP also make it ideal for huge projects, make the code cleaner, and make it easy to debug.

easy to maintain and upgrade.

Objects have their private data and functions, and the whole structure is compact and concise, which makes it easy to make changes in code. In contrast, usual procedural programming has spaghetti-type code, making it almost impossible to spot the point to modify. A new property can be added, and then related methods can be added to control that property.

Please keep in mind that many programmers believe that OOP is not the best solution for developing software.

Arguments from the other side

1: You can write great code in non-OOP languages as compared to terrible code in OOP. You can do that in just about any paradigm, not just this one. In some situations, OOP code has so many tight dependencies between objects that it becomes impossible to pull out a single piece for reuse.

2: You have to write more code in OOP as compared to the normal structured approach. which definitely means that the software or programme would be slower. For a web application, a delay in load time also increases the bounce rate.

3: If not properly designed, coded, and maintained, it is very difficult to troubleshoot as compared to a structured procedural language code.

4: Modification and clean code are also unrelated to OOP.

There is a detailed debate regarding the advantages and disadvantages of OOP. Some people find it useful, and some do not. There are a lot of circumstances in which OOP is the best solution, and there are a lot of situations where a structured approach is best. So, it’s up to you to make a decision by first identifying the problem.

Conclusion:

As I said earlier, classes have been proven to be very efficient. They are the gateway to “object-oriented programming,” or OOP, as some people like to call it. With OOP, you can dramatically save yourself a lot of time and also create an archive of objects or classes that you can use over and over.