Req #46128 [Com]: Magic function __cast($to)

[shabazzk at gmail dot com]

Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=46128&edit=1

 ID:                 46128
 Comment by:         shabazzk at gmail dot com
 Reported by:        131 dot php at cloudyks dot org
 Summary:            Magic function __cast($to)
 Status:             Open
 Type:               Feature/Change Request
 Package:            Feature/Change Request
 Operating System:   Linux
 PHP Version:        5.2.6
 Block user comment: N
 Private report:     N

 New Comment:

My suggestion is to replace `__cast($to)` with `__toObject($object)` (or even 
`__toSelf($object)`). That way, we have a magic method for each type to cast 
to, 
and we avoid the messy switch/if statements.


Previous Comments:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2012-09-05 21:01:02] maciej dot sz at gmail dot com

I think we all need this badly. It just suits the direction in which the 5.4 is 
going.

Regarding same functionality I think it is worth nothing that the conversion to 
boolean should be implicit. Otherwise such code could not work:

<?php
function check($response) {
  if ( ! $response ) die('error');
}

$resp = new Response();
check($resp->isSuccessful());
check($resp); // this would fail without the cast if the conversion was explicit
?>

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2012-09-04 14:18:13] qfox at ya dot ru

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN?!!
There was 3 years to patch sources!

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2011-01-20 22:54:12] neoegm at hotmail dot com

This would be very useful in order to be able to define a specific evaluation 
method for an object as a boolean, to, for example, simplify if-switches, so 
you can just do:

if ($obj)
{
        //...
}

Here an example of a class which toggles its own value each time it's evaluated 
as a boolean:

class ToggleObj
{
        var $val = FALSE;

        function __toBool()
        {
                $ret = $this->val;
                $this->val = !$ret;
                return $ret;
        }
}

$obj = new ToggleObj;

if ($obj)
{
        //Does not enter
}

if ($obj)
{
        //Now it does
}


Or going further, to make even table rows highlighted:

foreach ($rows as $row)
{
?>
        <tr class="<?=$obj?"":"highlighted"?>">
                <td><?=$row?></td>
        </tr>
<?php
}

Thanks.

NeoEGM
http://www.neoegm.com/

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2009-03-28 12:41:30] andrea at 3site dot it

I wonder why you guys do not implement in core the PECL php_operator which 
would make code style and life much easier.

I cannot imagine a Number class which needs (int)$obj for every single 
operation.
Please do not get me wrong, __cast is a good idea, but it covers only explicit 
cases while every other decent language (C#, Java, Python) allows developer to 
implement implic cast behavior as well.

This, in PHP 5.3, would be excellent (but probaly an illusion thou).
Regards

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2009-02-06 00:11:19] rayro at gmx dot de

This is such a nice Implementation and very useful, but i prefer to add the 
methods __toBool, __toInt and __toArray rather than __cast, stay tuned with 
PHP's other magic methods..

I dont agree fully with that post in feature request #38508 from helly. If 
that'll be the way, why did the decision for magic methods?
Isnt that all complex although? ^^
We know, but in my eyes (and many others), i think that these magically stuff 
is one of the top key features for php. And none of these features will become 
critism i think. If not needed, just dont use them!

The additional goody __toInvoke() introduced in 5_3 is a such nice addition for 
developing "quick gets" based on nested object sets:
<?php
$magazine(3)->getArticles();
// old way
$magazine->getArticle($magazine->useMagazine(3));
?>
This helper is a "backdoor" like way to enable PHP to fully write nested 
Objects like in Javascript. And my opinion for that: I LIKE THIS :)

I think this is a very very discussable topic to the changes for 5_3 or 6_0 
beside the wanted support for traditional type hinting and utf8!

thanks

------------------------------------------------------------------------


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