Create PHP Classes with Dynamic Functions

Discussion

1. olivier

   this is very good but can be improved to handle ‘get’ and ‘set’
2. Lorenzo

   Nice but… Why?
3. Line In

   I’m getting more into OO PHP, so it’s always nice to see clear examples like this. I like the __call magic method – hadn’t come across that one yet.

   Thanks David.
4. Geoffray

   Ok, but the reason of the unCamelCase function isn’t really explained in your example. You should add a more accurate property in your Record like :

   $Record = new Record(
   	array(
   		'my_id' => 12
   	)
   );
   
   echo $Record->getMyId();
5. EmEhRKay

   or you simply have a get method (like mootools) that looks up the field in the info hash and save a few method calls :)

   I just got into this argument at work about getters and setters. I was fighting for a chainable set() method

   set('field', 'value')->set()->otherMethod()
   

   they didnt understand or wasnt trying to hear me out. I did it anyway.

   Btw, I do think that this is an example of how most people use the __call magic method

   Here is mine

       public function __call($name, $args){
           $return = false;
           
           if(isset($name) && trim($name) !== ''){
               $value = $args[0];
               
               if(substr($name,0,4) == 'set_'){
                   $var = substr($name,4);
                   
                   if(!empty($var) && isset($value) && property_exists($this, $var)){
                       $return = $this->_setDirty($name, $value);
                   }
               }else{
                   $return = $this->_getVar($name);
               }
           }
           
           return $return;
       }
   
6. ace

   If you wanna use array as an object use ArrayObject. No need for inventing warm water. :)
7. Mark

   Err, why would you use this instead of mysql_fetch_object?

   http://nl3.php.net/mysql_fetch_object
8. Rob

   I did the same some time ago, but instead using the __call function I used __set and __get, which lead to the same result but one can access the fields directly as class attributes.
9. Joe Devon

   FYI, $info should be $_info since it’s private. See Zend Framework coding standards: http://framework.zend.com/manual/en/coding-standard.naming-conventions.html#coding-standard.naming-conventions.variables
10. Sean McArthur

    @Joe Devon: Zend Framework is certainly not law. And many people (myself included) find underscores annoying in a language that can handle private properties.

    I only use _prop in things like Javascript or Python.
11. David Walsh

    Yeah, I hate prefixing variables with underscore.
12. deef

    I came across a nice intro on this subject at http://www.killerphp.com/articles/getting-into-php6-and-advanced-php-concepts-part-4/
13. Robin

    Here is another tutorial which explains the same, but more complete and a better implementation (almost 4 years old already):
    http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/os-php-flexobj/
14. David Walsh

    @Robin: Thank you for the link — makes sense and provides great detail.
15. Arian

    Why do you use the PHP4 class syntax (no public/private/protected, no __construct)

    besides, it is faster to use a set() and get() method. php will look first at all methods of your class if the method exists and then call __call(), so it’s slower than just set()/get()
16. ilaçlama

    $record = array(
    		'id' => 12,
    		'title' => 'title',
    		'description' => 'description'
    	);
    

    php is frameworks…
17. Tibor Szász

    Very useful, thanks for the advice
18. PPafford

    /**
     * This class creates a dynamic shell to
     * define and set any Setter or Getter
     *
     * Example:
     *
     * $property = new DynamicPropertiesUtility();
     * $property->setFax("123-123-1234"); // set[anything here first letter upper case]("value here")
     * echo $property->getFax()."\n"; // get[anything here first letter upper case]()
     */
    
    class DynamicPropertiesUtility {
        private $properties;
        
        public function __call($name, $args) {
            if (preg_match('!(get|set)(\w+)!', $name, $match)) {
                $prop = $match[2];
                if ($match[1] == 'get') {
                    if (count($args) != 0) {
                    	throw new Exception("Method '$name' expected 0 arguments, got " . count($args)."\n");
                    }
                    return $this->properties[$prop];
                } else {
                    if (count($args) != 1) {
                    	throw new Exception("Method '$name' expected 1 argument, got " . count($args)."\n");
                    }
                    $this->properties[$prop] = $args[0];
                }
            } else {
            	throw new Exception("Unknown method $name");
            }
        }
    }
    
19. Rwk

    Nice tips !

    I followed the links in comments and it is real one revelations.

    I am great satisfied, thank you =)
20. kailash malav

    Good for beginners…………..