Question

I have lots of code like this in my constructors:-

function __construct($params) {

    $this->property = isset($params['property']) ? $params['property'] : default_val;

}

Some default values are taken from other properties, which was why I was doing this in the constructor. But I guess it could be done in a setter instead.

What are the pros and cons of this method and is there a better one?

Edit: I have some dependencies where if a property is not supplied in the $params array then the value is taken from another property, however that other property may be optional and have a default value, so the order in which properties are initialized matters.

This means that if I used getters and setters then it is not obvious which order to call them in because the dependencies are abstracted away in the getter instead of being in the constructer…

Answer 1

Create “globally available” function array_get.

public static function array_get($array, $property, $default_value = null) {
    return isset($array[$property]) ? $array[$property] : $default_value;
}