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PODesign patterns - anti pattern call super - avoid or keep
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copied!<p>I recently noticed that something I actually liked doing in certain cases (call super) is an anti-pattern. (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_super" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_super</a>)</p> <p>So my question is:</p> <p>How to do the following thing (a basic thing that most of us need, add some details to an object). I'll just add a new element to an array that is hold in an object var:</p> <pre><code> <?php class A { // bla bla bla public function __construct() { $this->_data['newDetail'] = "Ipiicaei"; } } class B extends A { // bla bla bla // Override constructor, I need to add one more detail for this class public function __construct() { parent::__construct(); $this->_data['newDetailSubcls'] = "Something"; } } </code></pre> <p>Now... if I don't call the parent class constructor to add the first element, I have 2 possibilities:</p> <ol> <li><p>In each subclass add the part of code that the parent is normally doing, and remove it from parent. So if I extend it with 999 classes I'll duplicate 999*lines in parent. Sounds bad to me.</p></li> <li><p>Call a method from parent that is implemented in child (template method pattern, what they recommend). So if I need for only one class to add that, and the rest of 998 to behave exactly like the parent, in each of them I add an empty function. This also sounds bad to me.</p></li> </ol> <p>Bear in mind that my example is simple (that's how an example should be), but the parent class and/or subclass might do complicated things.</p> <p>I can see reasons why call super may be bad in some situations. But in this one seems ok to me.</p> <p>So... how would you approach? Ignore that call super is an anti-pattern and do as I do (or used to do if it turns out my way is bad)? Or... how?</p>

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