How to "normalize" a php Object from SoapClient with inconsistent structure? - php

Question

I have a php stdObject that is an object, and sometimes an array of Objects.
EDIT: It's been returned by SoapClient::__soapCall.
If it has one entry:
stdClass Object
(
[Event] => stdClass Object
(
[Nr] => 7050
[Date] => 2016-11-30T00:00:00
)
)
If it's got multiple entries:
stdClass Object
(
[Event] => Array
(
[0] => stdClass Object
(
[Nr] => 7015
[Date] => 2016-04-28T00:00:00
)
[1] => stdClass Object
(
[Nr] => 7016
[Date] => 2016-04-29T00:00:00
)
[2] => stdClass Object
(
[Nr] => 7017
[Date] => 2016-06-08T00:00:00
)
)
)
I don't see why, and I'd like to correct it.
Here's how I got there:
$items = $this->getAll(); // returns an Object with n entries
foreach($items as $item){
$fullItem = $this->item->getElementByID($item->Nr); // returns the full data for this entry
$item->Days = $fullItem->Days; // that's the one that can contain objects or just the data if it has one entry
}
My Questions:
Is that normal, that the same request returns different data types?
Should I "normalize" this and make an array of objects if there's only one entry?
Or is there an other recommended way to cope with it?

Answer 1

I don't think it's ok in this case. You should keep the interface the same. So if you are expecting an unknown number of elements it should always be a collection, even if in some cases only one element is returned. However if you expect only one element then the collection should be omitted.
$this->getAll(); //should always return a collection
$this->getOneById($id); //should return single item without collection, return null or throw exception if no element is found
On the question should you "normalize" (refactor) it I wold say it depends on the effort estimation and the benefit you'll gain form the refactoring. If this occurs in few places only and it's not likely to be used in any other place in the future I think you shouldn't bother. In case you decide to refactor be very careful and ensure the whole application is working properly. If you have tests - great.

Answer 2

I didn't declare it in the question, sorry: The data is the result of a soap client call:
$this->soapClient = new \SoapClient($wsdlUrl, array('trace' => DEBUG_SOAP));
// ...
$result = $this->soapClient->__soapCall($method, array($method => $params));
I think what confused me is the standard behaviour of SoapClient::__soapCall
SOAP functions may return one, or multiple values. If only one value
is returned by the SOAP function, the return value of __soapCall will
be a simple value (e.g. an integer, a string, etc). If multiple values
are returned, __soapCall will return an associative array of named
output parameters.
http://php.net/manual/en/soapclient.soapcall.php
Also, a very similar question: PHP SoapClient type mapping behaves differently
And here are two solutions from there:
"Normalize" (what's the correct word?) the data AFTER we got it:
if (is_object($variable)){
$variable = array($variable);
}
https://stackoverflow.com/a/6408780/160968
And, that would be the equivalent to refactoring the request BEFORE we get it – there's a setting for the soapClient!
$soapConfig = array(
'features' => SOAP_SINGLE_ELEMENT_ARRAYS,
'trace' => true
);
$client = new SoapClient($wsdlUrl, $soapConfig);
https://stackoverflow.com/a/8008715/160968
Awesome!