PHP operating on a variable upon setting it in PHP - php

Question

This might look as a stupid question. But, I have a class with some public string variables defined in it.
Upon assigning a value to a property:
$a = new user();
$a->FirstName = "sth";
I want to store the value as UTF8.
I know I can do this via:
$a->Firstname = utf8_encode("sth");
However, I want the object to do this automatically.
How can I do this?

Answer 1

Otherwise no, the object cannot do it automatically.
Not automatically, but automagically!
<?php
class User {
/**
* Change the public to private/protected!
*/
private $Firstname;
/**
* This is automatically called upon calling a value that can't be written "from the outside".
*/
public function __set( $key, $value ) {
$this->$key = utf8_encode( $value );
}
public function __get( $key ) {
return isset( $this->$key ) ? $this->$key : false;
}
}
$user = new User;
$user->Firstname = 'Berry';
echo $user->Firstname;
The better solution would be to refactor in using mutators and accessors, or better yet, learn OO.

Answer 2

You want to use setters and getters. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encapsulation_%28object-oriented_programming%29
Like:
class User
{
protected $Firstname;
public function setFirstname($Firstname) {
$this->Firstname = utf8_encode($Firstname);
}
public function getFirstname() {
return $this->Firstname;
}
}
Example using magic methods:
class User
{
protected $data = array(
'Firstname' => '',
// ...
);
public function __set($key, $value) {
if (isset($this->data[$key])) {
$this->data[$key] = utf8_encode($value);
}
}
public function __get($key) {
return isset($this->data[$key]) ? $this->data[$key] : null;
}
}
Edit: I'm using $data so that there is at least a minimum of control of what properties can be set.

Answer 3

If you'd designed your class to have accessors and mutators, rather than public access to raw variables, then this would be easy.
Original code:
class user {
private $FirstName = '';
public function getFirstName() {
return $this->FirstName;
}
}
Solution code:
class user {
private $FirstName = '';
public function getFirstName() {
return utf8_encode($this->FirstName);
}
}
I suggest moving towards this approach.
Otherwise no, the object cannot do it automatically.
Edit
__set and __get might be the most appropriate way to implement this. I'm not too familiar with them, and it doesn't really matter: the point I'm making here is to use accessors and mutators... however you end up implementing them.