Is it possible to call function from parent class directly in PHP

Question

I have

class P {
    function fun() {
        echo "P"; 
    }
}

class Ch {    
    function fun() {
        echo "Ch";
    }
}

$x = new Ch();

How to call parent function fun from $x? Is it possible to do it directly or I have to write:

function callParent {
    parent::fun();
}

Answer 1

Simple... don't have a method of the same name in the child, in which case the parent method will be inherited by the child, and a call to $x->fun() will call the inherited method.

Answer 2

Assuming your code is actually meant to be this :

class P {
  function fun() {
    echo "P"; 
  }
}

class Ch extends P {
  function fun() {
    echo "Ch";
  }

  function callParent{
    parent::fun();
  }
}

$x = new Ch();

you indeed have to use parent::fun() to call P::fun.

This might be useful in case you're overriding a method which must be called in order for the parent class to properly be initialized, for example.

Like:

class Parent {
  function init($params) {
    // some mandatory code
  }
}

class Child extends Parent {
  function init($params) {
    parent::init();
    // some more code
  }
}