get_parent_class

(PHP 4, PHP 5)

get_parent_class -- Retrieves the parent class name for object or class

Description

string get_parent_class ( [mixed obj] )

If obj is an object, returns the name of the parent class of the class of which obj is an instance.

If obj is a string, returns the name of the parent class of the class with that name. This functionality was added in PHP 4.0.5.

Note: Since PHP 5, obj is optional if called from the object's method. If called without parameter outside object, this function returns FALSE (or NULL with a warning before PHP 5.1.0).

Example 1. Using get_parent_class()

<?php

class dad {
    function
dad()
    {
    
// implements some logic
    
}
}

class
child extends dad {
    function
child()
    {
        echo
"I'm " , get_parent_class($this) , "'s son\n";
    }
}

class
child2 extends dad {
    function
child2()
    {
        echo
"I'm " , get_parent_class('child2') , "'s son too\n";
    }
}

$foo = new child();
$bar = new child2();

?>

The above example will output:

I'm dad's son
I'm dad's son too

See also get_class() and is_subclass_of().