Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=38508&edit=1
ID: 38508
Comment by: lukas at lu-x dot me
Reported by: doublecompile at gmail dot com
Summary: Addition of Magic __toArray() function
Status: Closed
Type: Feature/Change Request
Package: Feature/Change Request
PHP Version: *
Block user comment: N
Private report: N
New Comment:
I can only +1 the opinion from the last comment.
Magic methods make PHP so powerful. So why limit it to string casting?
The creator of the class should decide what values to return in which case -
the user could just use the object in different ways without thinking about
what methods would return what. It would all work automatically - using an
array function would ask the object to return an array, using a string function
would ask to return a string etc.
So please implement magic methods for all data types in PHP - or, if that adds
"more complexity", add interfaces for that - the possibility to define custom
conversion rules just has to exist!
Previous Comments:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2013-05-24 03:39:23] rich dot remer at gmail dot com
I think the main benefit it offers is the ability to control what happens
during
a cast operation. Right now, casting simple scalar values or NULL to an array
works as expected.
While it's possible to cast an object to an array, the semantics of what should
happen in this situation are not nearly as clear. This really should be
controlled by the class.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2013-03-07 12:19:14] ante at caan dot si
Hi guys. I'm dragging this out from the "History". I think this is a great
suggestion as I use a lot of object that implement ArrayAccess so doing this
$someArray = (array) $obj;
that calls $obj->__toArray() would be a GREAT addition to PHP logic.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2012-03-14 18:55:00] erck0006 at gmail dot com
// MY APPLICATION'S INTERIM SOLUTION (**UPDATE**)
$customers = new Customers();
$customers = $customers->__toArray(); // THIS LINE IS THE **UPDATED** LINE
NEEDED IN ORDER TO AVOID TRIGGERING THE FOLLOWING ERROR ON THE FOLLOWING LINE:
Only variables should be passed by reference
$lastCustomer = array_pop($customers); // SUCCESS
echo $lastCustomer->getName(); // prints the last customer's name since the
previous line did not fail since I explicitly called a custom method named
__toArray() first
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2012-03-14 18:37:23] erck0006 at gmail dot com
<?php
// AS-IS
$customers = new Customers();
$lastCustomer = array_pop($customers); // FAIL: array_pop() expects parameter 1
to be array, object given
echo $lastCustomer->getName(); // execution never reaches this line
// MY APPLICATION'S INTERIM SOLUTION
$customers = new Customers();
$lastCustomer = array_pop($customers->__toArray()); // SUCCESS
echo $lastCustomer->getName(); // prints the last customer's name since the
previous line did not fail since I explicitly called a custom method named
__toArray() first
// TO-BE
$customers = new Customers();
$lastCustomer = array_pop($customers); // SUCCESS
echo $lastCustomer->getName(); // prints the last customer's name since
array_pop() calls __toArray() internally before failing
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2012-02-27 21:27:32] john at john dot com
this magic function would be great to have
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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the rest of the comments, please view the bug report online at
https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=38508
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