interface_exists
As of PHP 5.3.9, is_a() seems to return false when passed a string for the first argument. Instead, use is_subclass_of() and, if necessary for your purposes, also check if the two arguments are equal, since is_subclass_of('foo', 'foo') will return false, while is_a('foo', 'foo') used to return true.
is_a
(PHP 4 >= 4.2.0, PHP 5)
is_a — Checks if the object is of this class or has this class as one of its parents
Description
bool is_a
( object
$object
, string $class_name
[, bool $allow_string = FALSE
] )
Checks if the given object is of this class or has
this class as one of its parents.
Parameters
-
object -
The tested object
-
class_name -
The class name
-
allow_string -
If this parameter set to
FALSE, string class name asobjectis not allowed. This also prevents from calling autoloader if the class doesn't exist.
Return Values
Returns TRUE if the object is of this class or has this class as one of
its parents, FALSE otherwise.
Changelog
| Version | Description |
|---|---|
| 5.3.9 |
Added allow_string parameter
|
| 5.3.0 |
This function is no longer deprecated, and will therefore
no longer throw E_STRICT warnings.
|
| 5.0.0 |
This function became deprecated in favour of the
instanceof
operator. Calling this function will result in an
E_STRICT warning.
|
Examples
Example #1 is_a() example
<?php
// define a class
class WidgetFactory
{
var $oink = 'moo';
}
// create a new object
$WF = new WidgetFactory();
if (is_a($WF, 'WidgetFactory')) {
echo "yes, \$WF is still a WidgetFactory\n";
}
?>
Example #2 Using the instanceof operator in PHP 5
<?php
if ($WF instanceof WidgetFactory) {
echo 'Yes, $WF is a WidgetFactory';
}
?>
See Also
- get_class() - Returns the name of the class of an object
- get_parent_class() - Retrieves the parent class name for object or class
- is_subclass_of() - Checks if the object has this class as one of its parents
add a note
User Contributed Notes
is_a - [7 notes]
eitan at mosenkis dot net ¶
1 year ago
p dot scheit at zweipol dot net ¶
6 years ago
At least in PHP 5.1.6 this works as well with Interfaces.
<?php
interface test {
public function A();
}
class TestImplementor implements test {
public function A () {
print "A";
}
}
$testImpl = new TestImplementor();
var_dump(is_a($testImpl,'test'));
?>
will return true
cesoid at yahoo dot com ¶
7 years ago
is_a returns TRUE for instances of children of the class.
For example:
class Animal
{}
class Dog extends Animal
{}
$test = new Dog();
In this example is_a($test, "Animal") would evaluate to TRUE as well as is_a($test, "Dog").
This seemed intuitive to me, but did not seem to be documented.
Aron Budinszky ¶
1 year ago
Be careful! Starting in PHP 5.3.7 the behavior of is_a() has changed slightly: when calling is_a() with a first argument that is not an object, __autoload() is triggered!
In practice, this means that calling is_a('23', 'User'); will trigger __autoload() on "23". Previously, the above statement simply returned 'false'.
More info can be found here:
https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=55475
Whether this change is considered a bug and whether it will be reverted or kept in future versions is yet to be determined, but nevertheless it is how it is, for now...
dead dot screamer at seznam dot cz ¶
7 years ago
Why I test if class `A` inherit class `B` or implements interface `C` before I create class `A`?
<?
//That isn't work:
//1. function is_A()
if(is_A('A','B'))$a=new A;
if(is_A('A','C'))$a=new A;
//2. operator instanceOf
if(A instanceOf B)$a=new A;
if(A instanceOf C)$a=new A;
?>
martin dunisch ¶
7 years ago
Workaround for older PHP-Versions:
function is_a($anObject, $aClass) {
return get_class($anObject) == strtolower($aClass)
or is_subclass_of($anObject, $aClass);
}
zabmilenko at hotmail dot com ¶
7 years ago
Lazy Instantiation using is_a() and php5
<?php
class ObjectA
{
public function print_line($text)
{
print $text . "\n";
}
}
class ObjectB
{
public function ObjectA()
{
static $objecta;
if (!is_a($objecta, 'ObjectA'))
{
$objecta = new ObjectA;
}
return $objecta;
}
}
$obj = new ObjectB;
$obj->ObjectA()->print_line('testing, 1 2 3');
?>
In the above example, ObjectA is not instantiated until needed by ObjectB. Then ObjectB can continually use it's creation as needed without reinstantiating it.
There are other ways, but I like this one :-)