Req #43909 [Com]: Support for a method method to determine the 'emptiness' of an object

Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=43909&edit=1 ID: 43909 Comment by: robert dot johnson at icap dot com Reported by: grant dot kidd at gmail dot com Summary: Support for a method method to determine the 'emptiness' of an object Status: Open Type: Feature/Change Request Package: Feature/Change Request Operating System: Linux PHP Version: 5.2.5 Block user comment: N Private report: N New Comment: I want this too. Often I don't want to throw from the constructor, and there are many dynamic uses of such a method, like the C++ operator!(). It also makes code look better and allows generic code to work across the board, whatever the type of variable. Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2008-01-22 17:16:41] grant dot kidd at gmail dot com Description: ------------ I've noticed that there is no method for determining if an object is 'false' in the same way that an empty array is equivalent to false. Although the countables interface would be helpful for implementing a feature mimicing array, having a magic method '__isEmpty' would be best for anyone who wants to control the 'emptiness' of an object. This is a suggestion to implement a magic method to determine the true/false value of an object (in the same way a string or int or array can be true or false) Reproduce code: --------------- class Something { var $data; public function __construct($data = null) { if ($data) { $this->data = $data; } } public function __isEmpty() { return isset($this->data); } } $something = new Something(); if (!$something) { echo "huzzah, the magic method works!" } Expected result: ---------------- huzzah, the magic method works! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=43909&edit=1