Share variables between functions in PHP without using globals

Question

I have a class for interacting with a memcache server. I have different functions for inserting, deleting and retrieving data. Originally each function made a call to

Answer 1

I think you're looking for static properties here.

class mc {
    private static $instance;

    public static function getInstance() {
        if (self::$instance== null) {
            self::$instance= new self;
        }
        return self::$instance;
    }

    private function __construct() {
        $this->mem = memcache_connect(...);
    }
}

This implements a basic singleton pattern. Instead of constructing the object call mc::getInstance(). Have a look at singletons.