What is Object Oriented Programming in PHP?

PHP started as a procedural language, but over time, Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) has become essential for building modern PHP applications.

In simple terms, OOP treats everything as an object—something that has attributes (data) and can perform actions (methods).

A Practical Example: E-Commerce

Imagine you're building an online store. Each product is an object with properties like a name and a price. You can also perform actions on the product—like adding it to a cart.

In a procedural approach, you’d likely store product data in arrays and write functions to modify them. But with OOP, each product is self-contained, with its own data and behavior.

Objects Are Everywhere in PHP

OOP isn’t just for online stores—it’s the foundation of modern PHP development. You’ll see it when working with:

✅ Databases (storing and retrieving users)
✅ Web APIs (fetching data from external services)
✅ Frameworks like Laravel and Symfony (which are built entirely around OOP)

Why Learn OOP?

Better Code Organization – Your code is more structured and easier to maintain.

Reusability – Objects can be reused throughout your application.

Scalability – Large applications become much easier to manage.

💡 Mastering OOP is essential for writing professional PHP code. If you want to work with modern PHP frameworks or write cleaner, more maintainable code, this is the skill to focus on.