I've just recently began messing around with anonymous functions, and I decided to try and put it to actual use in a larger project. After hitting a road block, I tried setting up a small practice script, but the same issue persists. I don't quite understand what's going on, but here's some code,
$a = function($in) {
echo $in;
};
$a('b4ng');
The above works just fine, as does the following,
class Foo {
public $cmd;
public function __construct() {
$this->cmd = new stdClass();
$this->cmd->a = 'b4ng';
}
}
$bar = new Foo();
echo $bar->cmd->a;
That being made clear, the following does not work,
class Foo {
public $cmd;
public function __construct() {
$this->cmd = new stdClass();
$this->cmd->message = function($in) {
echo $in;
};
}
}
$bar = new Foo();
$bar->cmd->message('b4ng');
When attempting to use the snippet above, I'm hit with the following error,
Fatal error: Call to undefined method stdClass::message()
I understand what the error is telling me, I just don't understand why; 'message' obviously isn't a native function/method of stdClass, but it was declared in 'cmd'.
There is another thing you can't do:
$o = new SomeClass();
$m = $o->someMethod;
$m();
The issue here is that PHP has a special syntax for a member function call, which is what matches $o->foo(). In your case though, foo is a closure (i.e. a data member, not a method) so that causes the error. In order to fix this, you first need to retrieve foo from your object and then invoke it:
// use brackets to force evaluation order
($o->foo)(args..);
// use dedicated function
call_user_func($o->foo, args..);
// use two steps
$foo = $o->foo;
$foo(args..);
I'd try the first variant first, but I'm not sure if PHP allows it. The last variant is the most cludgy, but that one surely works.
In PHP, you can't define class methods outside the class itself. So, you can't create an instance of stdClass and then dynamically create methods for it.
Related
I've tried searching for this but frankly I don't know what to search for and unfortunately I imagine this question has been asked before.
In PHP, and possibly other languages, why can't I use an object immediately after I create it?
// This causes an error
$obj = new Object()->myFunction();
Note: I return $this in most of my setter functions so I can chain them together
function myFunction() {
// ... some more code here ...
return $this;
}
It's simply invalid syntax in PHP. You are able to get this to work in PHP 5.4 by wrapping the object constructor expression with parentheses:
$obj = (new Object())->myFunction();
See PHP 5.4 new features:
Class member access on instantiation has been added, e.g. (new Foo)->bar().
If you want $obj to be the value of the new Object, be sure to return $this from Object::myFunction() (this is called method chaining).
An alternative for getting constructor chaining to work is to have a static method in your class which creates the new class instance for you:
class Object {
public function __construct($var) {
$this->var = $var;
}
public static function newObject($var) {
return new Object($var);
}
}
$obj = Object::newObject()->chainMethodX()->chainMethodY()->...
This is invalid syntax.
PHP only supports:
$obj = new Object();
$obj->myFunction();
Keep in mind that, were you code sample to work, $obj would get the return value of myFunction().
Although not documented on the site it would appear as though the object operator -> has a higher precedence then the new keyword. So saying:
$obj = new Object()->someFunction();
is evaluated like you wrote
$obj = new (Object()->someFunction());
instead of the intended
$obj = (new Object())->someFunction();
The real reason it works this way is in the php grammer definition on line 775
I have been doing some tests (to replace old code) with the __invoke magic method and I'm not sure this is a bug or not:
Lets suppose we have a class:
class Calc {
function __invoke($a,$b){
return $a*$b;
}
}
The following is possible and works without any problem:
$c = new Calc;
$k = $c;
echo $k(4,5); //outputs 20
However if I want to have another class to store an instance of that object,
this doesn't work:
class Test {
public $k;
function __construct() {
$c = new Calc;
$this->k = $c; //Just to show a similar situation than before
// $this-k = new Calc; produces the same error.
}
}
The error occurs when we try to call it like:
$t = new Test;
echo $t->k(4,5); //Error: Call to undefined method Test::k()
I know that a "solution" could be to have a function inside the class Test (named k) to "forward" the call using call_user_func_array but that is not elegant.
I need to keep that instance inside a common class (for design purposes) and be able to call it as function from other classes... any suggestion?
Update:
I found something interesting (at least for my purposes):
If we assign the "class variable" into a local variable it works:
$t = new Test;
$m = $t->k;
echo $m(4,5);
PHP thinks you want to call a method k on instance $t when you do:
$t->k(4, 5)
which is perfectly reasonable. You can use an intermediate variable to call the object:
$b = $t->k;
$b(4, 5);
See also bug #50029, which describes your issue.
When you do $test->k(), PHP thinks you are calling a method on the $test instance. Since there is no method named k(), PHP throws an exception. What you are trying to do is make PHP return the public property k and invoke that, but to do so you have to assign k to a variable first. It's a matter of dereferencing.
You could add the magic __call method to your Test class to check if there is a property with the called method name and invoke that instead though:
public function __call($method, $args) {
if(property_exists($this, $method)) {
$prop = $this->$method;
return $prop();
}
}
I leave adding the arguments to the invocation to you.
You might also want to check if the property is_callable.
But anyway, then you can do
$test->k();
You can not use method syntax (like $foo->bar() ) to call closures or objects with __invoke, since the engine always thinks this is a method call. You could simulate it through __call:
function __call($name, $params) {
if(is_callable($this->$name)) {
call_user_func_array($this->$name, $params);
}
}
but it would not work as-is.
If you call $test->k() PHP will search for a method called "k" on the $test instance and obviously it will throws an Exception.
To resolve this problem you can create a getter of the property "k"
class Test {
public $k;
function __construct() {
$c = new Calc;
$this->k = $c; //Just to show a similar situation than before
// $this-k = new Calc; produces the same error.
}
public function getK() {
return $this->k;
}
}
So now you can use the functor in this way:
$t = new Test();
echo $t->getK()(4,5);
I am just starting out with PHP, and I am wondering if there is a way to add an anonymous function to a class instance.
For instance, lets say...
class A{
public B;
}
$c = new A();
//This is where I am getting a little confused...
//The following wont work
$c->B = function(){echo('HelloWorld');};
$c->B();
What I am hoping to do is reuse the same spit of code in a great number of different applications, and make it so that I can just 'swap-out' and replace functions in specific instances.
I am using php5.3 (so anonymous functions should work, just not in the way that I am using them).
Thanks so very much for your time!!
-GK
You can use the __call magic function for this job. Not a beauty, but it works..
like this:
class A {
public $B;
public function __call($closure, $args)
{
call_user_func_array($this->$closure, $args);
}
}
$c = new A();
$c->B = function () { echo('HelloWorld'); };
$c->B();
FWIW:
PHP 5.3's treatment of anonymous functions is entertaining. This won't work:
$c->B = function() { echo func_get_arg(0); };
$c->B("This fails :(");
This WILL work:
$c->B = function() { echo func_get_arg(0); };
$hilarious = $c->B;
$hilarious("This works!");
To work around this, you need to use a __call hack like the one provided by Oden.
This behavior may change in the future. The array dereferencing RFC was recently committed to PHP's trunk, and the patch has set off a discussion on function call chaining, the syntax of which may allow what you're trying to do without the __call hack. Unfortunately it's proven difficult in the past to get function call chaining working.
# real ugly, but PoC...
class a {
function __call($f, $x) {
call_user_func_array($this->$f, $x);
}
}
$a = new a;
$a->b = function() { echo "Hello world"; };
$a->b();
Sounds like you are describing a Strategy Pattern or Decorator Pattern - there are other ways to achieve this in way which is more easily communicated with other developers who read your code.
You can do something along these lines (which will also work with callbacks that are not closures):
<?php
class A {
private $fun;
function setFun($fun) {
if (!is_callable($fun))
throw new InvalidArgumentException();
$this->fun = $fun;
}
public function fun() {
call_user_func_array($this->fun, func_get_args());
}
}
$c = new A();
$c->setFun(function($a) { echo('HelloWorld ' . $a);});
$c->fun("here");
which gives HelloWorld here.
That said, you should also consider inheritance or the decorator pattern.
This is not an issue anymore by PHP 7;
// no error
$result = ($this->anonFunc)();
$result = ($this->anonFunc)($arg1, $arg2, ...);
See more about AST.
Rather than hooking a __call magic method into your class, you can instead execute the callable directly using call_user_func.
class A {
public $b;
}
$c = new A();
$c->b = function(){echo('HelloWorld');};
call_user_func($c->b); // HelloWorld
Obviously it would be nice for PHP to provide some syntax to execute this directly.
Ok I have a string...
$a_string = "Product";
and I want to use this string in a call to a object like this:
$this->$a_string->some_function();
How the dickens do I dynamically call that object?
(don't think Im on php 5 mind)
So you the code you want to use would be:
$a_string = "Product";
$this->$a_string->some_function();
This code implies a few things. A class called Product with the method some_function(). $this has special meaning, and is only valid inside a class definition. So another class would have a member of Product class.
So to make your code legal, here's the code.
class Product {
public function some_function() {
print "I just printed Product->some_function()!";
}
}
class AnotherClass {
public $Product;
function __construct() {
$this->Product = new Product();
}
public function callSomeCode() {
// Here's your code!
$a_string = "Product";
$this->$a_string->some_function();
}
}
Then you can call it with this:
$MyInstanceOfAnotherClass = new AnotherClass();
$MyInstanceOfAnotherClass->callSomeCode();
I seem to have read this question differently from everyone else who's responded, but are you trying to use variable variables?
In the code you've shown, it looks like you're trying to call a function from string itself. My guess is that you want to call a function from a class with the same name as that string, in this case "Product."
This is what that would look like:
$this->Product->some_function();
It seems you might instead be looking for something like this:
$Product = new Product();
$Product->some_function();
EDIT: You need to be running PHP5 in order to do any method chaining. After that, what you have is perfectly legal.
Let's see if I got your intentions correctly...
$some_obj=$this->$a_string;
$some_obj->some_function();
So you've got an object, and one of it's properties (called "Product") is another object which has a method called some_function().
This works for me (in PHP5.3):
<?PHP
class Foo {
var $bar;
}
class Bar {
function some_func(){
echo "hello!\n";
}
}
$f = new Foo();
$f->bar = new Bar();
$str = 'bar';
$f->$str->some_func(); //echos "hello!"
I don't have PHP4 around, but if it doesn't work there, you might need to use call_user_func() (or call_user_func_array() if you need to pass arguments to some_function()
Take the following code as an example:
class xpto
{
public function __get($key)
{
return $key;
}
}
function xpto()
{
static $instance = null;
if (is_null($instance) === true)
{
$instance = new xpto();
}
return $instance;
}
echo xpto()->haha; // returns "haha"
Now, I'm trying to archive the same result but without have to write the xpto class. My guess is I should have to write something like this:
function xpto()
{
static $instance = null;
if (is_null($instance) === true)
{
$instance = new stdClass();
}
return $instance;
}
echo xpto()->haha; // doesn't work - obviously
Now, is it possible to add __get() magic functionality to the stdClass object? I guess not, but I'm not sure.
No, it is not possible. You cannot add anything to stdClass. Also, unlike Java, where every object is a direct or indirect subclass of Object, this is not the case in PHP.
class A {};
$a = new A();
var_dump($a instanceof stdClass); // will return false
What are you really trying to achieve? Your question sounds a bit like "I want to close the door of my car, but without having a car" :-).
The OP looks like they are trying to achieve a singleton pattern using a function in the global scope which is probably not the correct way to go, but anyway, regarding Cassy's answer, "You cannot add anything to stdClass" - this is not true.
You can add properties to the stdClass simply by assigning a value to them:
$obj = new stdClass();
$obj->myProp = 'Hello Property'; // Adds the public property 'myProp'
echo $obj->myProp;
However, I think you need PHP 5.3+ in order to add methods (anonymous functions / closures), in which case you might be able to do something like the following. However, I've not tried this. But if this does work, can you do the same with the magic __get() method?
UPDATE: As noted in the comments, you cannot dynamically add methods in this way. Assigning an anonymous function (PHP 5.3+) does just that and simply assigns a function (strictly a closure object) to a public property.
$obj = new stdClass();
$obj->myMethod = function($name) {echo 'Hello '.$name;};
// Fatal error: Call to undefined method stdClass::myMethod()
//$obj->myMethod('World');
$m = $obj->myMethod;
$m('World'); // Output: Hello World
call_user_func($obj->myMethod,'Foo'); // Output: Hello Foo