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04.

Methods that Do work

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Our two methods are simple. So now let's add something useful. We'll be printing out the details of our ships all over the place, so I need a way to see the weaponPower, the strength and the jediFactor all at once - like a little summary. One handy way to do this is with a new method that creates that summary string and returns it to us.

Make a new function getNameAndSpecs(). Let's use the nice sprintf function with %s wildcards for the ship's name, followed by the weaponPower, jediFactor and strength. Now, we need to pass it what to fill in for those %s placeholders. To reference the name, use the magic $this variable: $this->name. Do the same thing for weaponPower, jediFactor and strength:

46 lines | play.php
// ... lines 1 - 2
class Ship
{
public $name;
public $weaponPower = 0;
public $jediFactor = 0;
public $strength = 0;
// ... lines 12 - 22
public function getNameAndSpecs()
{
return sprintf(
'%s (w:%s, j:%s, s:%s)',
$this->name,
$this->weaponPower,
$this->jediFactor,
$this->strength
);
}
}
// ... lines 34 - 46

And of course, make sure you have a return statement in front of all of this! Let's enjoy our hard work by echo'ing the method below: $myShip, arrow, getNameAndSpecs then the open and close parenthesis so PHP knows this is a method, not a property by that name.

46 lines | play.php
// ... lines 1 - 2
class Ship
{
// ... lines 5 - 22
public function getNameAndSpecs()
{
// ... lines 25 - 31
}
}
// ... lines 34 - 35
$myShip = new Ship();
// ... lines 37 - 42
echo '<hr/>';
echo 'Ship Description: '.$myShip->getNameAndSpecs();
// ... lines 45 - 46

Ready to try it? Refresh! There's our weird-little summary. We can use this across our app, and if we ever want to change how it looks, we only need to update one spot.

Method Arguments

Being PHP pro's, we of course know that functions can have arguments. Once again, a method in a class is no different. Isn't that nice? Let's say that sometimes we need an even shorter summary. Add an argument to the method called $useShortFormat. Now, use an if statement to choose between two different formats:

58 lines | play.php
// ... lines 1 - 2
class Ship
{
// ... lines 5 - 22
public function getNameAndSpecs($useShortFormat)
{
if ($useShortFormat) {
return sprintf(
'%s: %s/%s/%s',
$this->name,
$this->weaponPower,
$this->jediFactor,
$this->strength
);
} else {
return sprintf(
'%s: w:%s, j:%s, s:%s',
$this->name,
$this->weaponPower,
$this->jediFactor,
$this->strength
);
}
}
}
// ... lines 44 - 58

We'll just take out the w, j and s and put slashes instead. Cool! Now my editor is angry because getNameAndSpecs() requires an argument. So pass false when we call it, then call it again and use true.

58 lines | play.php
// ... lines 1 - 45
$myShip = new Ship();
// ... lines 47 - 53
echo $myShip->getNameAndSpecs(false);
echo '<hr/>';
echo $myShip->getNameAndSpecs(true);
// ... lines 57 - 58

Refresh, Perfect!