CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpcoding-stylearguments
MartinH
MartinH

Reputation: 1490

Cleanest way of dealing with different argument types

I have the following piece of code, which generates six drop-down elements:

   for($i = 0; $i < 6; $i++)
    {
        $RelatedProductsHtmlList .= $this->getRelatedProductHtmlDropdown($Products[$i], $allAvailibleProducts, $i);
    }

In this code, the argument $Products[$i] is passed, which is a ORM object with information for setting the default selected value of the drop-down list that is generated. I have the problem that $Products is not always an array. Sometimes only contains one value, in which case it's not an array, but a single ORM object.

What is the cleanest thing to do? Convert $Products to an array with only one element? Always pass the entire $Products variable en determine in the function if it's an array? Or determine if $Products is an array before calling the function and set the function argument accordingly?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 62

Answers (2)

claustrofob
claustrofob

Reputation: 4984

I would suggest to allow to pass array and a single object into a function. You will avoid multiple checks in different parts of code. You can do it this way:

/**
@param array | ProductClass $Products
...
*/
public function getRelatedProductHtmlDropdown($Products, $allAvailibleProducts, $i)
{
    if (!is_array($Products)) $Products = array($Products);
    ....
}

Upvotes: 0

hek2mgl
hek2mgl

Reputation: 157947

You have two options: fix it before calling the method or inside the method itself.

Example:

if(!is_array($products)) {
    $products = array($product));
}

If you ask me, I would add this code to the top of the method itself as this would ease the function call and reduce redundant code.

Upvotes: 1

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