multiple T_OBJECT_OPERATOR in php

Question

I'm a beginner and having trouble understanding the -> syntax in php, i know that it is used to access object in a class, but what does it mean if i you put multiple ->, for example:

$this -> $var1 -> var2 -> var3

That's called [method chaining](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3724112/php-method-chaining) — John Conde, Sep 04 '14 at 15:26
In your case, your class contains a variable $var1 which itself contains a variable $var2 which also contains a variable $var3 — tbddeveloper, Sep 04 '14 at 15:28
@deceze Would you call it property chaining? Well it's not really chaining anyways more like traversing through an object. — Dave Chen, Sep 04 '14 at 15:48

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 04 '14 at 15:30

2

It's the same as accessing nested arrays using this:

$arr['key1']['key2']['key3']

(I hope this analogy is helpful to you.)

$this->var1->var2->var3

Here $this is an object which has a property var1. var1 is also an object itself which has a property var2. var2 is also an object itself which has a property var3. It could be constructed as such:

$this->var1 = new stdClass;
$this->var1->var2 = new stdClass;
$this->var1->var2->var3 = new stdClass;

answered Sep 04 '14 at 15:30

deceze

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You may often use this in decoding JSON as well, [such as this](https://eval.in/private/2fff72e45e63d4). – Dave Chen Sep 04 '14 at 15:54

multiple T_OBJECT_OPERATOR in php

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