Object-Oriented PHP

Class

You can't have OOP without objects, and that's what classes provide. At the simplest level, a class is a data type. However, unlike primitive data types such as an integer, a float, or a character, a class is a complex, user-defined data type. A class is similar to a database record in that it encapsulates the characteristics of an object. For example, the record of a Person might contain a birth date, an address, a name, and a phone number. A class is a data type made up of other data types that together describe an object.

Classes Versus Records

Although a class is like a record, an important difference is that classes contain functions as well as different data types. And, when a function becomes part of a data type, procedural programming ...