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Shariful Ehasan
Shariful Ehasan

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How do you approach polymorphism in your PHP projects?

Polymorphism in PHP is an object-oriented programming concept that allows different classes to be treated through a common interface or parent class. It enables you to call the same method on different objects, each responding in its own way. This promotes code flexibility and scalability, making it easier to extend functionality without modifying existing code. A common example is having multiple classes like PdfExporter, CsvExporter, and XmlExporter all implementing an export() method from a shared interface — allowing you to work with any of them interchangeably in your code.

  • Do you find it makes your codebase more maintainable — or more complex?

  • Have you ever replaced polymorphism with simpler conditional logic for readability?

  • In Laravel (or other PHP frameworks), where have you found polymorphism most useful?

Do you think polymorphism is overused in some PHP projects, or is it underutilized compared to what it can offer?
Share your thoughts, real examples, or even anti-patterns you've encountered below!

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