CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpoopobject
Adam Baranyai
Adam Baranyai

Reputation: 3867

Assign value to object property which is array

I have an object which public properties are mostly arrays. I've written the following two functions:

public function updateProperty($property, $key, $value) {
    if ($key!=null) $this->$property[$key]=$value;
    else $this->$property=$value;
}

public function getProperty($property, $key=null) {
    if ($key!=null) return $this->$property[$key];
    else return $data;
}

When I try to use these functions I always get the following warning:

Warning: Illegal string offset 'id'

If I change the getProperty function to the below version, everything works fine there, but I can't figure out how to change the updateProperty too. Why am I getting this warning?

public function getProperty($property, $key=null) {
    $data=$this->$property;
    if ($key!=null) return $data[$key];
    else return $data;
}

Upvotes: 1

Views: 86

Answers (2)

AbraCadaver
AbraCadaver

Reputation: 78994

Given that you have a class property $datafields and you call your method like $class->getProperty('datafields','firstData'); then you need a variable property as you have shown, however you need {} to disambiguate since it accesses an array using the index:

return $this->{$property}[$key];

And:

$this->{$property}[$key] = $value;

Upvotes: 1

Sasanka Panguluri
Sasanka Panguluri

Reputation: 3128

public function updateProperty($property, $key, $value) { if ($key!=null) $this->$property[$key]=$value; else $this->$property=$value; }

Here, $value is the new value you want to assign that $key of the $property array to.

Not sure why you're doing this, but when you say: else $this->$property = $value, you're referencing $property to a value, rather than an array. So after this point $property is no more an array.

Assuming you're calling this method multiple times, once $property lost it's position as an array and became a mere value, it will try to update $property[$key] in subsequent calls. This could be the reason why it's complaining about the illegal offset.

I'm just wondering if you can do this instead:

public function updateProperty($property, $key, $value) {
    if ($key!=null) 
       $this->$property[$key]=$value;
}

Upvotes: 0

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