PHP Object, set multiple properties - php

Question

Is it possible to set multiple properties at a time for an object in php?
Instead of doing:
$object->prop1 = $something;
$object->prop2 = $otherthing;
$object->prop3 = $morethings;
do something like:
$object = (object) array(
'prop1' => $something,
'prop2' => $otherthing,
'prop3' => $morethings
);
but without overwriting the object.

Answer 1

Not like the way you want. but this can be done by using a loop.
$map = array(
'prop1' => $something,
'prop2' => $otherthing,
'prop3' => $morethings
);
foreach($map as $k => $v)
$object->$k = $v;
See only 2 extra lines.

Answer 2

You should look at Object Oriented PHP Best Practices :
"since the setter functions return $this you can chain them like so:"
$object->setName('Bob')
->setHairColor('green')
->setAddress('someplace');
This incidentally is known as a fluent interface.

Answer 3

I would recommend you don't do it. Seriously, don't.
Your code is much MUCH cleaner the first way, it's clearer of your intentions, and you aren't obfocusing your code to the extent where sometime in the future someone would look at your code and think "What the hell was the idiot thinking"?
If you insist on doing something which is clearly the wrong way to go, you can always create an array, iterate it and set all the properties in a loop. I won't give you code though. It's evil.

Answer 4

You could write some setters for the object that return the object:
public function setSomething($something)
{
$this->something = $something;
return $this; //this will return the current object
}
You could then do:
$object->setSomething("something")
->setSomethingelse("somethingelse")
->setMoreThings("some more things");
You would need to write a setter for each property as a __set function is not capable of returning a value.
Alternatively, set a single function to accept an array of property => values and set everything?
public function setProperties($array)
{
foreach($array as $property => $value)
{
$this->{$property} = $value;
}
return $this;
}
and pass in the array:
$object->setProperties(array('something' => 'someText', 'somethingElse' => 'more text', 'moreThings'=>'a lot more text'));

Answer 5

I realise this is an old question but for the benefit of others that come across it, I solved this myself recently and wanted to share the result
<?php
//Just some setup
header('Content-Type: text/plain');
$account = (object) array(
'email' => 'foo',
'dob'=>((object)array(
'day'=>1,
'month'=>1,
'year'=>((object)array('century'=>1900,'decade'=>0))
))
);
var_dump($account);
echo "\n\n==============\n\n";
//The functions
function &getObjRef(&$obj,$prop) {
return $obj->{$prop};
}
function updateObjFromArray(&$obj,$array){
foreach ($array as $key=>$value) {
if(!is_array($value))
$obj->{$key} = $value;
else{
$ref = getObjRef($obj,$key);
updateObjFromArray($ref,$value);
}
}
}
//Test
updateObjFromArray($account,array(
'id' => '123',
'email' => 'user#domain.com',
'dob'=>array(
'day'=>19,
'month'=>11,
'year'=>array('century'=>1900,'decade'=>80)
)
));
var_dump($account);
Obviously there are no safeguards built in. The main caveat is that the updateObjFromArray function assumes that for any nested arrays within $array, the corresponding key in $obj already exists and is an object, this must be true or treating it like an object will throw an error.
Hope this helps! :)

Answer 6

I wouldn't actually do this....but for fun I would
$object = (object) ($props + (array) $object);
you end up with an stdClass composed of $objects public properties, so it loses its type.

Answer 7

Method objectThis() to transtypage class array properties or array to stdClass. Using direct transtypage (object) would remove numeric index, but using this method it will keep the numeric index.
public function objectThis($array = null) {
if (!$array) {
foreach ($this as $property_name => $property_values) {
if (is_array($property_values) && !empty($property_values)) {
$this->{$property_name} = $this->objectThis($property_values);
} else if (is_array($property_values) && empty($property_values)) {
$this->{$property_name} = new stdClass();
}
}
} else {
$object = new stdClass();
foreach ($array as $index => $values) {
if (is_array($values) && empty($values)) {
$object->{$index} = new stdClass();
} else if (is_array($values)) {
$object->{$index} = $this->objectThis($values);
} else if (is_object($values)) {
$object->{$index} = $this->objectThis($values);
} else {
$object->{$index} = $values;
}
}
return $object;
}
}