When extending a class in PHP, what are the considerations for using inheritance versus interfaces for better code organization?

When extending a class in PHP, the choice between using inheritance and interfaces depends on the specific requirements of the code organization. Inheritance is useful when there is a clear "is-a" relationship between the classes, where the child class is a specialized version of the parent class. Interfaces, on the other hand, are beneficial when multiple classes need to implement the same set of methods but may not have a common parent class. Consider using inheritance for code reuse and defining a common interface for implementing specific behaviors. 

// Example using inheritance
class Animal {
    public function eat() {
        echo "Animal is eating";
    }
}

class Dog extends Animal {
    public function bark() {
        echo "Dog is barking";
    }
}

// Example using interfaces
interface Printable {
    public function print();
}

class Document implements Printable {
    public function print() {
        echo "Document is being printed";
    }
}

class Invoice implements Printable {
    public function print() {
        echo "Invoice is being printed";
    }
}

Keywords

PHP class inheritance interfaces code organization object-oriented programming

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