Question

I want to have a class property that allow for an expression to take place on the right side of the equals sign. All versions of PHP choke on the following code, but it is written in this way to allow for easier extendibility in the future.

/* Example SDK Class */
class SDK
{
    /* Runtime Option Flags */
    // Strings
    #  0: Makes no change to the strings.
    var $STRING_NONE        = (1 << 0);
    #  1: Removes color codes from the string.
    var $STRING_STRIP_COLOR = (1 << 1);
    #  2: Removes language codes from the string.
    var $STRING_STRIP_LANG  = (1 << 2);
    #  3: Removes all formatting from the string.
    var $STRING_STRIP       = SELF::STRING_STRIP_COLOR & SELF::STRING_STRIP_LANG;
    #  4: Converts color codes to HTML & UTF-8.
    var $STRING_HTML        = (1 << 3);
    #  8: Converts color codes to ECMA-48 escape color codes & UTF-8.
    var $STRING_CONSOLE     = (1 << 4);
    # 16: Changes player names only.
    var $STRING_NAMES       = (1 << 5);
    # 32: Changes host names only.
    var $STRING_HOSTS       = (1 << 6);
    function SDK($fString = SELF::STRING_HTML & SELF::STRING_NAMES & SELF_HOST)
    {
        // constructor code.
    }
}

$SDK &= new SDK(SDK::STRING_NONE);

(1 << 0) seems like very basic syntax to me, and is not fathomable why PHP would not allow for such a thing. Can anyone think of a work around that would maintain readability and future expandability of the following code?

Answer 1

When declaring a class constant or property in PHP you can only specify a primitive values for default values. So for instance, this class declaration won’t work:

class TEST {
 const ABC = 2 * 4;
 const DEF = some_function();
 static $GHI = array(
   'key'=> 5 * 3,
 );
}

But this class declaration will:

class TEST {
 const ABC = 8;
 static $GHI = 15;
}

These rules apply to default values for class constants/properties – you can always initialize other variables with the results of an expression:

$a= array(
 'a'=> 1 * 2,
 'b'=> 2 * 2,
 'c'=> 3 * 2,
);

The reason for this class declaration behavior is as follows: expressions are like verbs. They do something. Classes are like nouns: they declare something. A declarative statement should never produce the side-effects of an action statement. Requiring primitive default values enforces this rule.

With this in mind we can refactor the original class as follows:

class SDK
{

    static protected $_types= null;

    static public function getType($type_name) {
        self::_init_types();
        if (array_key_exists($type_name, self::$_types)) {
            return self::$_types[$type_name];
        } else {
            throw new Exception("unknown type $type_name");
        }
    }

    static protected function _init_types() {
        if (!is_array(self::$_types)) {
            self::$_types= array(
                'STRING_NONE'=> 1 << 0,
                // ... rest of the "constants" here
                'STRING_HOSTS'=> 1 << 6
            );
        }
    }

    function __construct($fString = null) {
        if (is_null($fString)) {
            $fString= self::getType('STRING_NONE') & self::getType('STRING_HOSTS');
        }
        var_dump($fString);
    }

}

$SDK &= new SDK(SDK::getType('STRING_HOSTS'));