Joomla: Write and call a helper function in a component

Question

Fledgling Joomla / PHP developer, hitting a wall understanding how to do this. Everything I found searching has been for older versions of Joomla or other frameworks and so it's all confusing the first time around.

I want to have a helper function that I can call from anywhere in my component. Basically it takes a userID input and returns their full name, let's say hair color and height. Here's the function:

function get_profile_info($userID) {

        $db =& JFactory::getDBO();          
        $query = $db->getQuery(true);

        $query->SELECT('u.id as UserID
                    , u.name AS Name
                    , up.profile_value AS Hair
                    , up2.profile_value AS Height
                    ');
        $query->FROM (' #__users AS u');
        $query->LEFTJOIN (' #__user_profiles AS up ON u.id = up.user_id AND up.ordering = 1');
        $query->LEFTJOIN (' #__user_profiles AS up ON u.id = up.user_id AND up.ordering = 2');
        $query->WHERE(' u.id = '.$userID.'');
        $query->GROUPBY (' u.id
                    , u.name
                    , up.profile_value
                    ');


       $db->setQuery($query);   
       return $query;                   
}

I'd put this in a file called "lookups.php" within the "helpers" folder of my component...but here's where I'm not sure what to do next. Top of lookups.php has the obligatory:

<?php defined ( '_JEXEC' ) or die;

So two questions: 1) Do I put everything in a class or keep it as a series of functions (since there will be others)?

2) How do I pass the userID and get back the values of Name, Hair, and Height in the view (view.html.php / default.php)?

Thank you!

==================================

Edit: Based on @Shaz 's response below here's where I'm at (again, just starting off and trying to wrap my head around some of this):

lookups.php

abstract class LookupHelper {

        var $Name;
        var $Hair;
        var $Height;

    public function get_profile_info($userID) {
                ... 
                (same as above until the next line)

                $db->setQuery($query);
                $result=$db->loadRow();
                $Name = $result[1];
                $Hair = $result[2];
                $Height = $result[3];
        $getprofileinfo = array(Name=>$Name, Hair=>$Hair, Height=>$Height);
                $return $getprofileinfo;
           }
    }

Then in my default.php (will probably move to view.html.php):

    $getprofileinfo = Jview::loadHelper('lookups'); //got an error without this
    $getprofileinfo = LookupHelper::get_profile_info($userID);

    $Name = $getprofileinfo[Name];
    $Hair = $getprofileinfo[Hair];
    $Height = $getprofileinfo[Height];

So...it's working - but it seems like there's a much easier way of doing this (specifically manually creating an array then recalling by position). Thoughts?

Thank you!!

Answer 1

1. Create the helper class and include there all your functions:

   abstract class HelloWorldHelper { /* functions */ }

2. Call the function and store the result:

   $var = HelloWorldHelper::get_profile_info($thatId);

Answer 2

Is not possible to write your helper class inside of an existing helper Joomla file that's already being calling by all your components?

By default Joomla have helper classes doing stuff, so all you have to do is to expand the core helper classes with your owns.