PHP - simplyfy the code - something like MVC part - php

Question

Im .NET programmer, but totally new in PHP. Im fighting with this for hours.
I need to simplyfy data transfer from interface to database. I have something like this:
$default = new stdClass();
// default values - all of them should be set to default value
// some of them will be overwritten later, but only one of them
$default->{'val-string'} = ''; // default values start
$default->{'val-int'} = 0;
$default->{'val-float'} = 0;
$default->{'val-image'} = ' ';
$default->{'val-datetime'} = 0;
$default->{'val-boolean'} = false; // default values end
$container = array();
$row = clone $default;
$row->{'field_id'} = 1;
$row->{'field_name'} = $nameoffield1;
$row->{'val-string'} = 'Diffrent types are filled for diffrent rows';
$container[] = $row;
$row = clone $default;
$row->{'field_id'} = 2;
$row->{'field_name'} = $nameoffield2;
$row->{'val-int'} = $valueoffield2;
$container[] = $row;
$row = clone $default;
$row->{'field_id'} = 3;
$row->{'field_name'} = $nameoffield3;
$row->{'val-datetime'} = current_time();
$container[] = $row;
// there
// is
// a lot
// of these
//rows
$result = $database->insertContainer($db_session, $container);
At the end need something like that "pseudocode .NET mixed with php"
list_of_rows.AddItem(makeRow($field_id1, $name1, (int)$dataforint)));
list_of_rows.AddItem(makeRow($field_id2, $name2, (string)$dataforstring));
list_of_rows.AddItem(makeRow($field_id3, $name3, (date)$datafordate));
list_of_rows.AddItem(makeRow($field_id4, $name4, (boolean)$dataforboolean));
$result = $database->insertContainer($db_session, list_of_rows);
If overloading like this is not possible (or very complicated) in PHP - i will be happy if someone give me any better solution than mine code at the top.

Answer 1

This a possible approach. You can also use the __call method to achieve this. This is just a quick example. Either this, or you might use an ORM like propel to achieve something similair. It really depends on what the task is.
class Row_Builder {
protected $default = array();
public function __construct() {
$this->default['field_id'] = null;
$this->default['field_name'] = null;
$this->default['val-string'] = null;
$this->default['val-int'] = null;
$this->default['val-float'] = null;
$this->default['val-image'] = null;
$this->default['val-datetime'] = null;
$this->default['val-boolean'] = false;
return;
}
public function setValues() {
// we only need the fist argument in this case.
$params= func_get_arg(0);
if(isset($params)) {
foreach($params as $key => $value) {
if(array_key_exists($key,$this->default)) {
$this->default[$key] = $value;
}
}
}
}
public function __get($key) {
if(array_key_exists($key, $this->default)) {
return $this->default[$key];
}
}
}
$row = new Row_Builder;
$row->setValues(array('field_id' => 1, 'field_name' => 'some value', 'val-string' => 'here is a str value'));
print $row->field_name;