Creating PHP class instance with a string

Question

I have two classes, class ClassOne { } and class ClassTwo {}. I am getting a string which can be either "One" or "Two".

Instead of using a long switch statement such as:

switch ($str) {
    case "One":
        return new ClassOne();
    case "Two":
        return new ClassTwo();
}

Is there a way I can create an instance using a string, i.e. new Class("Class" . $str);?

Answer 1

Yes, you can!

$str = 'One';
$class = 'Class'.$str;
$object = new $class();

When using namespaces, supply the fully qualified name:

$class = 'FooBarMyClass'; 
$instance = new $class();

Other cool stuff you can do in php are:
Variable variables:

$personCount = 123;
$varname = 'personCount';
echo $$varname; // echo's 123

And variable functions & methods.

$func = 'my_function';
$func('param1'); // calls my_function('param1');

$method = 'doStuff';
$object = new MyClass();
$object->$method(); // calls the MyClass->doStuff() method.