B.2 New E_STRICT Error Setting

PHP 5's new E_STRICT error setting issues a warning when you use deprecated features. Specifically, it complains when you:

• Create objects without a class definition

• Use a constructor named after the class instead of _ _construct( )

• Use var instead of public

• Use is_a( ) instead of instanceof

• Copy an object instead of making a reference (requires zend.ze1_compatibility_mode to be On )

• Statically invoke a nonstatic method

• Refine the prototype of an inherited method other than _ _construct( )

• Return a nonvariable by reference

• Assign the object returned by new by reference

All of these features work in PHP 5, but you should slowly modify your code to stop using them. Here are a few examples:

• This code automagically creates $person as an object without a class definition:

   $person->name = 'Rasmus Lerdorf';  PHP Strict Standards:  Creating default object from empty value  

  
  

• This Person class uses var instead of public (or, even better, private ). It also defines two constructors:

   class Person {     var $name;          function _ _construct($name) {         $this->name = $name;     }     function Person($name) {         $this->name = $name;        } }  PHP Strict Standards:  var: Deprecated. Please use the public/private/protected modifiers   PHP Strict Standards:  Redefining already defined constructor for class Person  

  
  

E_STRICT is not enabled by default, nor is it part of E_ALL . To enable it, set your error_reporting configuration directive to E_ALL E_STRICT . Setting E_STRICT within a PHP script using error_reporting( ) causes PHP to miss some errors because it has already parsed the file.