PHP Magic methods to use property as array or string - php

Question

I have some property $abc (type array) in object:
$this->abc = array(
'id' => 123,
'status' => 'close'
);
There is some solution to using this property as array or string? Like that:
echo $this->abc; // return first element of array: 123
echo $this->abc['status']; // return element by key: close
Maybe getter and setter or Reflection?
EDIT:
I prepare some like this, but all returns id value:
class Test {
private $abc;
public function __construct() {
$this->abc = array(
'id' => '123',
'status' => 'close'
);
}
public function __get($key) {
if ($key === 'abc') {
echo $this->abc['id'];
}
}
}
$t = new Test();
echo $t->abc['id']; // return 123 - correct!
echo $t->abc['status']; // return 123 - incorrect, should be return 'close' string
echo $t->abc; // return 123 - correct
Any suggestion?

Answer 1

Actually you can't do exactly what your example shows.
Magic methods (what a silly name, btw) simply allow you to get and set properties, so that some_object->a can be handled with custom code, but you cannot tell PHP to handle
some_object->a and some_object->a[0] differently.
You are free to have your custom getter return an int, an array or an elephant, but that's it.
EDIT: Your code does nothing but print abc['id'] each time the property is referenced.
abc is still handled as any plain old property.
Let's replace echo with return
public function __get($key) {
if ($key === 'abc') {
return$this->abc['id'];
}
}
Now whenever you reference abc, the getter gives you "123".
Demonstration:
echo $t->abc['id']; // 'id' evaluates to 0, so result is "1" ("123"[0])
echo $t->abc['status']; // same thing
echo $t->abc; // "123" - correct (of sorts)
echo $t->abc[1]; // "2" (2nd character of "123")
You are also free do do stupid things like that:
class fairytale {
private static $handsome =
array ("Prince Valliant", "Superman", "Flash Gordon");
private static $ugly =
array ("Michael Moore", "Condoleezza Rice", "Ronald McDonald");
function __get ($prop)
{
if ($prop=='frog')
return self::$handsome;
if (preg_match ('/^frog\\[([0-9]*)\\]$/', $prop, $res))
return self::$ugly[$res[1]];
}
}
function kiss ($prince)
{
echo "$prince appears in a puff of smoke...\n";
}
$pond = new fairytale();
$frog1 = $pond->frog[0]; // <-- array subscript parsed before getter is called
$frog2 = 'frog[0]';
$frog2 = $pond->$frog2; // <-- array subscript parsed inside getter
kiss ($frog1);
kiss ($frog2); // <--- surprise!
As a side note, abusing custom getters/setters to turn frogs into princes might be a lot of fun and a fine display of PHP expertise, but it's unlikely to produce readable and maintainable code.
Just my opinion, of course.

Answer 2

If you want to process the value when fetch or set the value, you can use __get / __set

Answer 3

You can use magic methods __set and __get, for example
class someClass{
private $_arr = array();
public function __set($key, $val){
if(!array_key_exists($key, $this->_arr)){
$this->_arr[$key] = array();
}
$this->_arr[$key] = array_merge($this->_arr[$key], (array)$val);
}
public function &__get($key) {
return $this->_arr[$key];
}
}
$obj = new someClass();
$obj->setvalue = array(5,6,7);
$obj->setvalue = 4;

Answer 4

You could also just do
reset($this->abc);
for the first element.