Question

I have a database table which stores a “type” for a project which stores either a 1, 2 or 3 where:

1 = “Active”
2 = “Inactive”
3 = “Cancelled”

Currently, I store this mapping in an array in my config.php making it a global variable accessible from my whole application. It looks something like:

$project_types = array(1 => "Active", 2 => "Inactive", 3 => "Cancelled");

Now, I have a Project class, which has get_type() and set_type() methods to alter the integer value as expected.
I want to have a get_type_name() method. Can anyone here explain what this method should look like? Currently, I have something that looks like this:

public function get_type_name() {
    global $project_types;
    return $project_types[$this->get_type()];
}

I the array above should somehow lay inside my Project class, but I’m just not sure what route to take.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Globals are bad, and in your case, creates an unnecessary dependency for your Project class.

The solution (one of many) is quite simple:
Create a class property that holds the types and do the lookup on it.

class Project {

    /**
     * @param array Holds human translations of project types.
     */
    protected $_types = array(
        1 => 'Active',
        2 => 'Inactive',
        3 => 'Cancelled',
    );

    /**
     * Get a human-readable translation of the project's current type.
     *
     * If a translation can't be found, it returns NULL.
     *
     * @return string|null
     */
    public function get_human_type() {
        $type = $this->get_type();
        return isset($this->_types[$type]) ? $this->_types[$type] : NULL;
    }

}