How can I make big multidimensional variables seem shorter in PHP? - php

Question

I'm creating a php class which is getting slightly out of hand the deeper it gets.
Here's an example:
unset($this->file[$key]->inspect->formats);
unset($this->file[$key]->inspect->tags);
unset($this->file[$key]->inspect->chapters);
unset($this->file[$key]->inspect->annotations);
unset($this->file[$key]->inspect->automatic_captions);
unset($this->file[$key]->inspect->subtitles);
$this->file[$key]->inspect->name = trim($this->file[$key]->inspect->name);
$this->file[$key]->inspect->artist = trim($this->file[$key]->inspect->artist);
Instead of writing $this->file[$key]->inspect for every single variable I want to use is there a way I can set a variable e.g $inspect to take this place?
So that when I write $inspect->subtitles it'll know what I really mean and affect the main $this->file[$key]->inspect->subtitles?

Answer 1

$inspect = &$this->file[$key]->inspect;
declare this. Now you can set your data like this
$inspect->formats = 'format';
$inspect->subs = 'subs';
// ...
adding the & you will affect the variable and not only a copy of this variable
here are explanations about references http://php.net/manual/en/language.references.whatare.php

Answer 2

One approach you could use is replicate the object_get() helper method from Laravel that will fetch elements based on dot notation.
/**
* Get an item from an object using "dot" notation.
*
* #param object $object
* #param string $key
* #param mixed $default
* #return mixed
*/
function object_get($object, $key, $default = null)
{
if (is_null($key) || trim($key) == '') return $object;
foreach (explode('.', $key) as $segment)
{
if ( ! is_object($object) || ! isset($object->{$segment}))
{
return value($default);
}
$object = $object->{$segment};
}
return $object;
}
$ob = new StdClass();
$ob->property->name->value = 'Lol';
echo object_get($ob, 'property.name.value');
Unfortunately there'd be a bit of extra implementation if the $object->property was an array like in your example.