Classes are a fundamental part of modern PHP development. Think of a class as a blueprint - it defines what properties (data) and methods (functions) your objects will have. Objects in PHP help you organize related data and functionality together in a reusable way.
Basic Class Structure
Let's start with a simple example:
}
$product = new Product(); $product->name = "Phone"; $product->price = 99.99;
echo $product->name; // returns “Phone” var_dump($product->isExpensive()); // returns false
This simple example shows the basic components of a class: • Properties ($name, $price) store data
• Methods (isExpensive()) define behavior
• The $this keyword refers to the current object
Constructor Method
We can make our class better by using a constructor - a special method that runs when creating a new object. It lets you add data while creating a new object instance:
Access Levels
PHP provides three visibility levels for properties and methods:
Inheritance
Classes can inherit properties and methods from other classes. This is useful when you have similar types of objects that share common features but need some additional functionality. Instead of duplicating code, you can extend a base class:
}
class DigitalProduct extends Product { public function __construct( public string $name, public float $price, public string $downloadLink ) {}
}
$course = new DigitalProduct('PHP Course', 99.99, 'course.zip'); echo $course->getDescription(); // inherited method echo $course->hasDiscount(); // inherited method echo $course->download(); // new method
When you start working with Laravel, you'll use classes extensively. Every model, controller, and service in Laravel is a class. This foundation will help you understand Laravel's structure better.
