Scope and dtor question

I saw a coworker of mine doing something that I thought was strange and would like to make sure that what he's doing is safe.

He wrote a class like this:

Code:

---

class autolog {
  public function __construct($method, $params){
      MyLogger::Log('Entering ' . $method, $params);
      $this -> mymethod = $method;
  }
  public function __destruct(){
      MyLogger::Log('Exiting ' . $this -> mymethod);
  }
  public $mymethod;
};

---

Then it's being used like this:

Code:

---

public function foo ($params){
  $log = new autolog(__METHOD__, $params);
  ... code ...
}  //relying on autolog::__destruct getting called at this scope termination

---

This is a very common technique in C++ and other OOP languages, but I was always taught that you should NEVER use this type of technique with languages that manage their own memory because you have no guarantees of when the dtor gets called. I also know that PHP has no concept of what a C++ programmer would call scope.

Is it safe to rely on this behavior? Logs can be critical to get right.

I see nothing wrong with this. Remember that PHP, even though it is its own memory manager, it only reserves however much the configuration file allocates.

Also, it is a scripting language. So, when the script is finished its execution, the memory is released. Unless there are plans for an infinite loop, don't worry about it.