Req #55833 [Opn->Csd]: Dereferencing clone operation

Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=55833&edit=1 ID: 55833 Updated by: nikic@php.net Reported by: hakon dot trandal at gmail dot com Summary: Dereferencing clone operation -Status: Open +Status: Closed Type: Feature/Change Request Package: Scripting Engine problem PHP Version: Irrelevant -Assigned To: +Assigned To: nikic Block user comment: N Private report: N New Comment: Supported in PHP 7. Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2011-10-02 22:39:38] hakon dot trandal at gmail dot com Description: ------------ This suggestion is similar to "Instance and method call/property access"[1] and array dereferencing[2]. Currently, if you want to perform an operation on a cloned object you have to assign the result to a temporary variable: $clonedObject = clone $otherObject; $result = $clonedObject->doSomething(); It should be possible to call "doSomething()" directly after the clone operation: $result = (clone $otherObject)->doSomething(); This would be especially useful in fluent interfaces: $criteria = ArticleQuery::create() ->filterByIsPublished(true) ->orderByPublishFrom(Criteria::DESC) ->joinWith('Article.Author') ->limit(10); $news = (clone $criteria) ->filterByType('news') ->find(); $articles = (clone $critera) ->filterByType('article') ->find(); [1] https://wiki.php.net/rfc/instance-method-call [2] http://schlueters.de/blog/archives/138-Features-in-PHP-trunk-Array-dereferencing.html This suggestion originated on stack overflow: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7629196/why-must-we-assign-a-clone-to-a-new-variable/ Test script: --------------- class MyClass { public $myVar = "original"; public function doSomething() { $this->myVar = "did something"; return $this; } } $a = new MyClass(); echo (clone $a)->doSomething()->myVar; echo $a->myVar; Expected result: ---------------- did something original Actual result: -------------- Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_OBJECT_OPERATOR ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=55833&edit=1