Req #69961 [NEW]: Method overloading with PHP 7

From: simobj at live dot com Operating system: Linux PHP version: 7.0.0alpha2 Package: SPL related Bug Type: Feature/Change Request Bug description:Method overloading with PHP 7 Description: ------------ Hello, Maybe this would finally reach someone's heart; as method overloading is really important to Object Oriented, especially now that PHP 7 will support type hinting for primitives. Imagine a StringBuilder class (which I'm really creating), now a StringBuilder builds a string by appending/prepending a string, any primitive type, another StringBuilder but not an object. class StringBuilder { public function append(StringBuilder $stringBuilder) { $this->string += $stringBuilder->toString(); } public function append(string $string) { $this->string += $string; } } This simply can't be achieved right now, and there's really no reason since would be allowed to hint in PHP7. One "get-around" solution right now is to use __call method to dispatch to distinct methods, this way it appears as if we are using one single method, but really we are using distinct methods. The problem is that 2 methods might have different arguments, so we have to use func_num_args() to distinguish which method to use, followed by a call_user_func_array : class Foo { private function doSomethingWith2Parameters($a, $b) { } private function doSomethingWith3Parameters($a, $b, $c) { } public function __call($method, $arguments) { if($method == 'doSomething') { if(count($arguments) == 2) { return call_user_func_array(array($this,'doSomethingWith2Parameters'), $arguments); } else if(count($arguments) == 3) { return call_user_func_array(array($this,'doSomethingWith3Parameters'), $arguments); } } } } -- Edit bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=69961&edit=1 -- Try a snapshot (PHP 5.4): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=69961&r=trysnapshot54 Try a snapshot (PHP 5.5): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=69961&r=trysnapshot55 Try a snapshot (trunk): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=69961&r=trysnapshottrunk Fixed in SVN: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=69961&r=fixed Fixed in release: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=69961&r=alreadyfixed Need backtrace: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=69961&r=needtrace Need Reproduce Script: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=69961&r=needscript Try newer version: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=69961&r=oldversion Not developer issue: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=69961&r=support Expected behavior: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=69961&r=notwrong Not enough info: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=69961&r=notenoughinfo Submitted twice: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=69961&r=submittedtwice register_globals: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=69961&r=globals PHP 4 support discontinued: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=69961&r=php4 Daylight Savings: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=69961&r=dst IIS Stability: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=69961&r=isapi Install GNU Sed: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=69961&r=gnused Floating point limitations: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=69961&r=float No Zend Extensions: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=69961&r=nozend MySQL Configuration Error: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=69961&r=mysqlcfg