php how to get DIR of child class

Question

I have two classes in separate folders

class Parent
{
    public $path = null;

    function  __construct()
    {
        $this->path = __DIR__;
    }
}

and

class Child extends Parent
{

}

So when I create an instance of Child:

$child = new Child();
echo $child->path

I get a path to Parent. What I actually want is to get path to Child. I cannot modify Child class.

Is it possible?

Don't think this can be done. Why do you need to know the directory of the child? Why can't you modify it? — Explosion Pills, Oct 09 '10 at 07:30
tandu, I cannot modify Childs, cause they are added as extensions by users. And it would be bad to force users to add this __DIR__ thing into every class they create. Parent here represents basic functionality needed by core program so it can autoload resources stored in Child's directory. So core program autoloads all user defined Childs and loads associated resources automatically. — ehpc, Oct 09 '10 at 07:50
Possible duplicate of [PHP \_\_DIR\_\_ evaluated runtime (late binding)?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18100689/php-dir-evaluated-runtime-late-binding) — Marco Roy, Jun 06 '16 at 03:47

score 31 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 09 '10 at 07:34

31

You can get use reflection to get what you're looking for:

$child = new Child();
$class_info = new ReflectionClass($child);
echo dirname($class_info->getFileName());

answered Oct 09 '10 at 07:34

bradym

If that works, please mark the answer as accepted by clicking the checkbox. That will remove this from the "unanswered questions" list. – bradym Oct 09 '10 at 17:16
I already did that, but it seems that yesterday glitch at stackoverflow rolled it back.. – ehpc Oct 10 '10 at 03:34
4

Check this out: `$class_info = new ReflectionClass($this);` – piotr_cz Mar 10 '14 at 21:43
1

Keep in mind that Reflection should not be used in production because it is slow as hell. – Daniel W. Aug 11 '17 at 10:01

php how to get __DIR__ of child class