Question

class A {
    $props = array('prop1', 'prop2', 'prop3');
}

How to convert above defined array into class properties ? The final result would be..

class A {
    $props = array('prop1', 'prop2', 'prop3');
    public $prop1;
    public $prop2;
    public $prop3;
}

I have tried this so far :

public function convert(){
        foreach ($this->props as $prop) {
            $this->prop;
        }
    }

Looks bit ugly as I am new to php

Answer 1

You may use php magic methods __get and __set like this (study when and how are they invoked before implementing):

class A {
    protected $props = array('prop1', 'prop2', 'prop3');

    // Although I'd rather use something like this:
    protected GetProps()
    {
        return array('prop1', 'prop2', 'prop3');
    }
    // So you could make class B, which would return array('prop4') + parent::GetProps()

    // Array containing actual values
    protected $_values = array();

    public function __get($key)
    {
        if( !in_array( $key, GetProps()){
            throw new Exception("Unknown property: $key");
        }

        if( isset( $this->_values[$key])){
            return $this->_values[$key];
        }

        return null;
    }

    public function __set( $key, $val)
    {
        if( !in_array( $key, GetProps()){
            throw new Exception("Unknown property: $key");
        }
        $this->_values[$key] = $val;
    }
}

And you would use it as normal properties:

$instance = new A();
$a->prop1 = 'one';
$tmp = $a->undef; // will throw an exception

It would be also nice if you would implement:

• public function __isset($key){}
• public function __unset($key){}

so you’ll have consistent and complete class.