On 17/11/2019 14:41, Aimeos | Norbert Sendetzky wrote:
PHP frameworks would profit from support of an "arrayable" pseudo type
hint that matches "array" and all objects that implements "Traversable",
"ArrayAccess" and "Countable".
...
It would be useful to implement an Arrayable interface too:
interface Arrayable extends \Iterator, \Countable, \ArrayAccess
{
public function toArray() : array;
}
It feels like there are two alternative suggestions here. Not only do
they use the same keyword to mean different things, but "convertible to
array", and "usable as array" seem like distinct concepts to me.
For the "convertible to array" case, I think __toArray, or an interface
specifying just that one method, would make more sense than combining it
with the existing interfaces. I'm sceptical of that concept, though,
because most objects could be converted to many different arrays in
different circumstances, each of which should be given a different and
descriptive name.
For the "usable as array" case, the big advantage would come if internal
array_* functions could take such objects, but that requires a bit of
thought on how each function should behave. There could also be some
surprising behaviour passing infinite iterators, or objects where the
output of ArrayAccess and iteration don't match up. It might make sense
to have objects opt into an Arrayable interface, to make clear they're
expecting to be used this way; but require no additional methods other
than those required by Iterator (or Traversable), Countable, and
ArrayAccess.
Regards,
--
Rowan Tommins (né Collins)
[IMSoP]
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