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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