Accessing a parents variable from subclass php and parent keyword?

Question

I have a parent class and a subclass, the parent class has a constructer that sets a var and I would like to use that var in the subclass, I have i

Answer 1

First off, Parent is a reserved word. Second off, don't use var unless you're using an older version of PHP. You can use protected. You don't need to use the parent keyword to access the variable because the child class should inherit it. You can access it via $this->myVar

EDIT to clarify

You only need to use parent:: when accessing methods of the base class or static variables of the base class. If you try to access a non static variable of the base class you will get an error Access to undeclared static property" fatal error:

Here's an example to get you started.

<?php
class Animal{
     protected $myVar;
     public function __construct() {
          $this->myVar = 'a';
     }
 }

class Cat extends Animal {
     public function foo() {
         echo $this->myVar;
     }
 }

$cat = new Cat(); 
$cat->foo(); 

?> 

Here's a working example of this code.

Answer 2

Keyword parent should be used to access methods or static variables of parent class only, so your first code is the proper one, since $myVar is not static.