When to use $this->property instead of $property in PHP

Question

Super easy question. Look at the 2 sample class methods.

In the first One I pass in a variable/property call $params I then do $this->params

Answer 1

In general you can use specific variable when they're in the context ("scope") of your object.

In OOP programming, $this will almost always be used to access a class variable or other class method.

class MyClass{
     private $myNum;

     public function myFunc(){
          echo 'My number is '.$this->myNum; // Outputting the class variable "myNum"
     }

     public function go($myNumber){
          $this->myNum  = $myNumber; // Will set the class variable "$myNum" to the value of "$myNumbe" - a parameter fo the "go" function.
          $this->myFunc(); // Will call the function "myFunc()" on the current object
     }
}

Shai.