Why can't I overload constructors in PHP?

Question

I have abandoned all hope of ever being able to overload my constructors in PHP, so what I\'d really like to know is why.

Is there even a reason for it? Doe

Answer 1

For completeness, I'll suggest Fluent Interfaces. The idea is that by adding return $this; to the end of your methods you can chain calls together. So instead of

$car1 = new Car('blue', 'RWD');
$car2 = new Car('Ford', '300hp');

(which simply wouldn't work), you can do:

$car = (new Car)
       ->setColor('blue')
       ->setMake('Ford')
       ->setDrive('FWD');

That way you can pick exactly which properties you want to set. In a lot of ways it's similar to passing in an array of options to your initial call:

$car = new Car(['make' => 'Ford', 'seats' => 5]);