Question

How can I dynamically pass “items” to class function?

For example here it is a piece of some class and its function where I declare an element of object (items) as $b:

//..........
     public function __add2SomeObj($b) {    

        $namespc = $this -> __someObj();  // __someObj() returns object
        $namespc -> cats = $b;

            }
//...................

Can I pass any other name instead cats dynamically so it won’t be declared as a string?
i.e. something like:

    //..........
         public function __add2SomeObj($a,$b) { 

            $namespc = $this -> __someObj();  // __someObj() returns object
            $namespc -> $a = $b;

                }
    //...................
} //end of class started above

$t=new aboveClass()
$t->__add2SomeObj("cats", array(1=>"PussyCat",2=>"Scratchy"));
$t->__add2SomeObj("dogs", array(1=>"Waffy",2=>"Sharik")); // once again but dogs...

Should I define a constant or what to make this or should i declare this protected varibale as object like (object) $vaaar?
Sorry I’m a little bit infamiliar with PHP OOP…

Answer 1

Yes you can do this. Read about variable variables:

Class properties may also be accessed using variable property names. The variable property name will be resolved within the scope from which the call is made. For instance, if you have an expression such as $foo->$bar, then the local scope will be examined for $bar and its value will be used as the name of the property of $foo. This is also true if $bar is an array access.

---

However you must be carful when dealing with arrays:

$namespc->$a[0]

will get the first element from the array that gets returned by $namespc->$a.

Whereas

$namespc->{$a[0]}

will first resolve $a[0], i.e. get the first value of the array $a, and use this as property name.