PHP dynamic variable creation via a getter - php

Question

So I'm working with a bag class, and I'm trying to dynamically create variables from the bag class.
Here's what I have:
class BagFoo
{
public $a;
public $b;
public $c;
}
class Bar
{
private $bagFoo;
public function output()
{
foreach($this->bagFoo as $key => $value)
{
$$key = $value;
}
//output then happens here.
}
}
This allows me to call $a instead of $this->bagFoo->getA(); which I rather like, but the problem is I have to expose the member variables to implement it. I'd like to have the same dynamic variable assignment, but access the member variables through a getter, instead of accessing directly.
Solutions I've though of and didn't really like:
Having a getVars() function in BagFoo that would return an array of var names and their values, and then iterating through that.
Calling get_class_methods() and then doing parsing and iterating through the getters (ew).
I'm sure there's a way to do what I'm trying in a more elegant form, but I just can't think of how to implement it.

Answer 1

Your code would probably be more understandable if you just used an associative array to store your values.
class Bar
{
private $bagFoo = [];
public function __construct($arr)
{
$this->bagFoo = $arr;
foreach($arr as $key => $value)
{
$$key = $value;
}
echo $a; //echos 'aaaa'
}
}
$bar = new Bar([
'a' => 'aaaa',
'b' => 'bbbb',
'c' => 'cccc'
]);
Word of advice: Be very careful using $$ because you can overwrite variables in the current scope and cause all kinds of problems in your application. For example:
$bar = new Bar([
'_SERVER' => 'broken server vars!',
'_COOKIE' => 'broken cookies!',
'arr' => 'broken iterator!',
]);