按数据类型调用构造函数:

class A 
{ 
    function __construct($argument)
    { 
       $type = gettype($argument);

       if($type == 'unknown type')
       {
            // type unknown
       }

       $this->{'__construct_'.$type}($argument);
    } 

    function __construct_boolean($argument) 
    { 
        // do something
    }
    function __construct_integer($argument) 
    { 
        // do something
    }
    function __construct_double($argument) 
    { 
        // do something
    }
    function __construct_string($argument) 
    { 
        // do something
    }
    function __construct_array($argument) 
    { 
        // do something
    }
    function __construct_object($argument) 
    { 
        // do something
    }
    function __construct_resource($argument) 
    { 
        // do something
    }

    // other functions

} 

PHP是一种动态语言，因此不能重载方法。你必须像这样检查参数的类型:

class Student 
{
   protected $id;
   protected $name;
   // etc.

   public function __construct($idOrRow){
    if(is_int($idOrRow))
    {
        $this->id = $idOrRow;
        // other members are still uninitialized
    }
    else if(is_array($idOrRow))
    {
       $this->id = $idOrRow->id;
       $this->name = $idOrRow->name;
       // etc.  
    }
}

为了回应Kris的最佳答案(顺便说一句，他帮助我设计了自己的课程)，这里有一个修改过的版本，供那些可能会觉得有用的人使用。包括用于从任何列中进行选择和从数组中转储对象数据的方法。干杯!

public function __construct() {
    $this -> id = 0;
    //...
}

public static function Exists($id) {
    if (!$id) return false;
    $id = (int)$id;
    if ($id <= 0) return false;
    $mysqli = Mysql::Connect();
    if (mysqli_num_rows(mysqli_query($mysqli, "SELECT id FROM users WHERE id = " . $id)) == 1) return true;
    return false;
}

public static function FromId($id) {
    $u = new self();
    if (!$u -> FillFromColumn("id", $id)) return false;
    return $u;
}

public static function FromColumn($column, $value) {
    $u = new self();
    if (!$u -> FillFromColumn($column, $value)) return false;
    return $u;
}

public static function FromArray($row = array()) {
    if (!is_array($row) || $row == array()) return false;
    $u = new self();
    $u -> FillFromArray($row);
    return $u;
}

protected function FillFromColumn($column, $value) {
    $mysqli = Mysql::Connect();
    //Assuming we're only allowed to specified EXISTENT columns
    $result = mysqli_query($mysqli, "SELECT * FROM users WHERE " . $column . " = '" . $value . "'");
    $count = mysqli_num_rows($result);
    if ($count == 0) return false;
    $row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result);
    $this -> FillFromArray($row);
}

protected function FillFromArray(array $row) {
    foreach($row as $i => $v) {
        if (isset($this -> $i)) {
            $this -> $i = $v;
        }
    }
}

public function ToArray() {
    $m = array();
    foreach ($this as $i => $v) {
        $m[$i] = $v;    
    }
    return $m;
}

public function Dump() {
    print_r("<PRE>");
    print_r($this -> ToArray());
    print_r("</PRE>");  
}

Kris的解决方案真的很好，但我更喜欢工厂和流畅风格的混合:

<?php

class Student
{

    protected $firstName;
    protected $lastName;
    // etc.

    /**
     * Constructor
     */
    public function __construct() {
        // allocate your stuff
    }

    /**
     * Static constructor / factory
     */
    public static function create() {
        return new self();
    }

    /**
     * FirstName setter - fluent style
     */
    public function setFirstName($firstName) {
        $this->firstName = $firstName;
        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * LastName setter - fluent style
     */
    public function setLastName($lastName) {
        $this->lastName = $lastName;
        return $this;
    }

}

// create instance
$student= Student::create()->setFirstName("John")->setLastName("Doe");

// see result
var_dump($student);
?>

从5.4版开始，PHP支持trait。这并不是你真正想要的，但基于特征的简单方法是:

trait StudentTrait {
    protected $id;
    protected $name;

    final public function setId($id) {
        $this->id = $id;
        return $this;
    }

    final public function getId() { return $this->id; }

    final public function setName($name) {
        $this->name = $name; 
        return $this;
    }

    final public function getName() { return $this->name; }

}

class Student1 {
    use StudentTrait;

    final public function __construct($id) { $this->setId($id); }
}

class Student2 {
    use StudentTrait;

    final public function __construct($id, $name) { $this->setId($id)->setName($name); }
}

我们最终得到两个类，每个构造函数一个，这有点适得其反。为了保持理智，我将加入一个工厂:

class StudentFactory {
    static public function getStudent($id, $name = null) {
        return 
            is_null($name)
                ? new Student1($id)
                : new Student2($id, $name)
    }
}

所以，这一切都归结为:

$student1 = StudentFactory::getStudent(1);
$student2 = StudentFactory::getStudent(1, "yannis");

这是一个非常冗长的方法，但它可以非常方便。

这里有一种优雅的方法。创建trait，在给定参数数量的情况下启用多个构造函数。你只需将参数的数量添加到函数名“__construct”中。所以一个参数是"__construct1"，两个"__construct2"…等。

trait constructable
{
    public function __construct() 
    { 
        $a = func_get_args(); 
        $i = func_num_args(); 
        if (method_exists($this,$f='__construct'.$i)) { 
            call_user_func_array([$this,$f],$a); 
        } 
    } 
}

class a{
    use constructable;

    public $result;

    public function __construct1($a){
        $this->result = $a;
    }

    public function __construct2($a, $b){
        $this->result =  $a + $b;
    }
}

echo (new a(1))->result;    // 1
echo (new a(1,2))->result;  // 3