No Nested Classes in php? How would I set up the following...?

[Richard Ryan]

A simplified example of what I am looking for comes from a restaurant.

• The Restaurant has 30 tables (Parent Class).
• Each table has a server and location (Parent Properties).
• At each table is an array of patrons (Child Class).
• Each patron has name and alergies (Child Prop's).

I thought to set it up like this:

class patron {
  public Name;
  public Allergies;
}
class table {
  public Server;
  public Location;
  public patrons = array();
}
$Table = array();
$Table[0] = new table();
$Table[0]->patrons[0]-> new patron();
 

Any examples of a workaround for this would be great. Thanks in advance.

[Dormilich]

just for clarification, what is a patron of a table?

[Richard Ryan]

A Patron in this case is someone who is hungry and is going to eat. If Uncle Bob, Aunt Sue and Cousin Larry go to dinner, that's 3 "patrons" at one table.

[Dormilich]

your general idea is not far from sensible, you just need to find a good way to pass the objects around.

first we start developing a class for the patrons (I’ll call them guests, to make it more obvious). you have to ask, what functionality a Guest object needs. well, every guest has a name, and (optionally allergies). these are your initial properties. next is functionality, what do you need to know about a guest—his properties. you need to make him tell you that. these will be methods.

for design reasons, you define the public methods beforehand.

// common specifics about a person
interface iPerson
{
    public function getName();
}
// restaurant specific info (allergies)
interface iHealth
{
    public function getAllergies();
    public function hasAllergy($name);
    public function addAllergy($name);
    public function healAllergy($name);
}

this is what a guest can tell us. now we code that into the Guest class:

class Guest implements iPerson, iHealth
{
    private 
          $name    = '' // a name once given hardly changes
        , $allergy = array() // no allergies by default
    ;
    // assign the name
    public function __construct($name)
    {
        $this->name = name;
    }
 
    public function getAllergies()
    {
        return $this->allergy;
    }
 
    public function addAllergy($name)
    {
        $this->allergy[] = $name;
    }
 
    public function healAllergy($name)
    {
        // test your cleverness here ...
    }
 
    public function hasAllergy($name)
    {
        // test your cleverness here ...
    }
}

now we have a class, that contains all we need to know about the guest (for now at least).

next is the Table class. the process is the same, you need to ask what a table is/has and what it can do. again, interfaces help being consistent in the behaviour. (I leave writing that part to you)

the interesting part is adding a Guest to a Table. good practice is to use a so-called setter method, i.e.

public function addGuest($name, iHealth $guest)
{
    $this->guest[$name] = $guest;
}

the iHealth interface here ensures, that you can "ask" the guest about his allergies independently of the class used for object construction.

as example the verification for a dish:

public function orderDish(iAllergy $dish)
{
    // if a guest has an allergy, deny order
    // using a specific guest as simplified example
    $guest = $this->guest['Homer'];
    $match = array_intersect($guest->getAllergies(), $dish->getAllergenes());
    if (count($match) > 0)
    {
        throw new Exception("Homer can’t eat " . $dish->getName()); 
    }
    // private order method
    $this->placeOrder($dish);
}

note: allergene – triggers an allergic reaction