How to dynamically instantiate an object in PHP? - php

Question

Can we dynamically create and initialize an object in PHP?
This is the normal code:
class MyClass{
var $var1 = null;
var $var2 = null;
.
.
public function __construct($args){
foreach($args as $key => $value)
$this->$key = $value;
}
}
---------------------
$args = ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == "POST") ? $_POST : $_REQUEST;
$obj = new MyClass($args);
The above code works fine. Please note that the names of REQUEST parameters are accurately mapped with the members of class MyClass.
But can we do something like this:
$class = "MyClass";
$obj = new $class;
If we can do like this, then can we initialize $obj by using $args.
According to this post, $obj = $class should work. But it does not work for me. I tried get_class_vars($obj). It threw an exception.
Thanks

Answer 1

It's more a comment, but I leave it here more prominently:
$class = "MyClass";
$obj = new $class($args);
This does work. See newDocs.

Answer 2

You have to overload some other magic methods:
__get (a method that gets called when you call object member)
__set (a method that gets called when you want to set object member)
__isset
__unset
Please see this codepad to see your code rewritten to work with what you want:
<?php
class MyClass{
var $properties = array();
public function __construct($args){
$this->properties = $args;
}
public function __get($name) {
echo "Getting '$name'\n";
if (array_key_exists($name, $this->properties)) {
return $this->properties[$name];
}
return null;
}
}
$args = array("key1" => "value1", "key2" => "value2");
$class = "MyClass";
$obj = new $class($args);
echo "key1:". $obj->key1;
?>

Answer 3

You can use Reflection to instanciate an object with parameters.
<?php
class Foo {
protected $_foo;
protected $_bar;
public function __construct($foo, $bar)
{
$this->_foo = $foo;
$this->_bar = $bar;
}
public function run()
{
echo $this->_foo . ' ' . $this->_bar . PHP_EOL;
}
}
$objectClass = 'Foo';
$args = array('Hello', 'World');
$objectReflection = new ReflectionClass($objectClass);
$object = $objectReflection->newInstanceArgs($args);
$object->run();
See Reflection on php manual.