The self and this are two different operators which are used to represent current class and current object respectively. self is used to access static or class variables or methods and this is used to access non-static or object variables or methods.
So use self when there is a need to access something which belongs to a class and use $this when there is a need to access a property belonging to the object of the class.
self operator: self operator represents the current class and thus is used to access class variables or static variables because these members belongs to a class rather than the object of that class.
Syntax:
self::$static_member
Example 1: This is the basic example which shows the use of self operator.
php
<?phpclass GFG { private static $static_member = "GeeksForGeeks"; function __construct() { echo self::$static_member; // Accessing static variable }}new GFG();?> |
Output:
GeeksForGeeks
Example 2: This example is a demo of exploiting polymorphic behavior in php using self.
php
<?phpclass GFG { function print() { echo 'Parent Class'; } function bar() { self::print(); }}class Child extends GFG { function print() { echo 'Child Class'; }}$parent = new Child();$parent->bar();?> |
Output:
Parent Class:
Here the parent class method runs because the self operator represents the class, thus we see that the main class method is the method of the parent class only.
$this operator: $this, as the ‘$’ sign suggest, is an object. $this represents the current object of a class. It is used to access non-static members of a class.
Syntax:
$that->$non_static_member;
Example 1: This is the basic example which shows the use of $this operator.
php
<?phpclass GFG { private $non_static_member = "GeeksForGeeks"; function __construct() { echo $this->$non_static_member; // accessing non-static variable }}new GFG();?> |
Output:
GeeksForGeeks
Example 2: This example is a demo of polymorphic behavior in php using self.
php
<?phpclass GFG { function print() { echo 'Parent Class'; } function bar() { $this->print(); }}class Child extends GFG { function print() { echo 'Child Class'; }}$parent = new Child();$parent->bar();?> |
Output:
Child Class
Here, there is no reference to any class and the object which is pointing the child class is calling the method defined in the child class. This is an example of dynamic polymorphism in PHP.
