CHAPTER 3 – USING THE $this VARIABLE

3.6 ACCESSING METHODS AND PROPERTIES USING THE $this VARIABLE During the execution of an object's method, a special variable called $this is automatically defined, which denotes a reference to the object itself. By using this variable and the -> notation, the object's methods and properties can be further referenced. For example, you can access the $name property by using $this->name (note that you don't use a $ before the name of the property). An object's methods can be accessed in the same way; for example, from inside one of person's methods, you could call getName() by writing $this->getName().