CODEWITHSUNDEEP
php
user978122
user978122

Reputation: 5761

PHP & Implementing .Netish Properties

I've decided to have some fun, and implement .Net Properties in PHP.

My current design centers around something like:

$var;

method Var($value = null)
{
if($value == null) {
return $var;
}
else {
$var = $value;
}

}

Obviously this runs into a bit of an issue if someone is trying to set the property (and associated variable) to null, so I am thinking of creating a throwaway class that would never be used. Thoughts, comments?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 46

Answers (2)

Jon
Jon

Reputation: 437684

Do not reinvent the wheel. PHP already provides the magic methods __get and __set that can be used to implement .NET-lookalike properties; there are examples on the documentation pages. PHP frameworks also use these hooks to redirect code execution to proper getter/setter methods (which really need to be distinct, for the reason you have discovered yourself) so that read-only properties can be achieved as well; an (admittedly complicated) example is this.

Pro tip: if you do override __get and __set, you will need to also override __isset and __unset so that your class can continue to behave intuitively in the presence of constructs such as empty and unset.

Upvotes: 2

Madara's Ghost
Madara's Ghost

Reputation: 175048

I don't understand what you're trying to achieve here. Do you want a getter?

public function getVar() {
    return $this->var;
}

Do you want a setter?

public function setVar($newVar) {
    $this->var = $newVar;
}

You can even make it public and have someone on the outside to set the var:

public $var;
...
$object->var = "New Var";

Upvotes: 0

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