The Complete Guide: Calling Parent Class Methods in PHP Inheritance

---

Understanding the Basics of PHP Inheritance

Inheritance in PHP allows classes to inherit properties and methods from another class. The class from which properties and methods are inherited is called the parent class, and the class that inherits those properties and methods is known as the child class. This relationship not only promotes code reusability but also helps in maintaining a clean and organized codebase.

Practical Example: Vehicular Actions

The Parent Class: Vehical

We start with a basic parent class named Vehical, which includes methods to start and stop the engine:

class Vehical{
  public function startEngine(){
    echo "Engine started";
  }

  public function stopEngine(){
    echo "Engine stopped";
  }
}

Extending Functionality with the Car Class

To demonstrate the power of inheritance, we introduce a child class Car that extends Vehical:

class Car extends Vehical{
  public function startEngine(){
    // Calling the parent method
    parent::startEngine();
    echo "<br>Car engine started";
  }
}

Demonstrating Inherited and Extended Behavior

When we instantiate the Car class and call its methods, we observe the following:

$car = new Car();
$car->startEngine(); // Outputs: Engine started<br>Car engine started
$car->stopEngine();  // Outputs: Engine stopped

---