Variable I need to use in other classes

Question

Hello all. The following code connects my database

var $connection;

function MySQLDB(){
  $this->connection = mysql_connect(DB_SERVER, DB_USER, DB_PASS) or die(mysql_error());
  mysql_select_db(DB_NAME, $this->connection) or die(mysql_error());

etc etc

This code is within a class called MySQLDB

At the end

$database = new MySQLDB;

Inside that class I can connect to things using

$this->connection

How can I access this connection from outside the class within another class? Thanks

Answer 1

Add a function to the MySQLDB class that returns the connection

function GetConnection() {
    return $this->connection;
}

then later on:

$database = new MySQLDB;
$myconn = $database->GetConnection(); // your connection

Answer 2

If $connection not marked as private/protected, you can use $connection directly

$conn=$database->connection;

$res=mysql_query("SELECT blabla", $conn);

or

$res=mysql_query("SELECT blabla", $database->connection);

but better value is to use Singleton pattern http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singleton_pattern