Re: Initializing constants once, with code?

On Thu, Jan 2, 2020, at 6:39 PM, Mike Schinkel wrote: > > On Jan 2, 2020, at 7:09 PM, tyson andre <tysonandre775@hotmail.com> wrote: > > > >> The problem with using constants is that the value is still hardcoded > >> and if we later want to change to pulling the data from a config file > >> we have to change all the code that uses those constants. > > > > It's possible to work around this by using a unique constant name > > and define('unique_name', $dynamicExpression) > > (and const MY_CLASS_CONST = \unique_name;) > > I do appreciate the attempt to come up with something that is a workaround. > > That said, I definitely do not want to do is start using "clever" code > in my implementations because — one day — someone else will have to > maintain what I write. > > Really, I was just asking for a discussion of potentially allowing for > one-time initialization via code for constants and via a > straightforward, obvious syntax and standardized syntax. > > Effectively I am just asking for immutable static values in a class > that can be access vis the <Class>::<ImmutableValue> syntax. > > -Mike I agree with the use case, but not with the solution of piggybacking them onto constants. It seems to me it would be much cleaner to just... build that into a static method call with the derivation-and-caching logic behind the scenes. It's not complicated code. class Stuff { protected $val; public static function val() { self::$val ??= computeStuff(); return self::$val; } } Although property accessors might make it even nicer looking, if we can ever figure out how to make that performant. :-) --Larry Garfield