Question

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Why I should use __get() and __set()-magic methods in php?
When do/should I use __construct(), __get(), __set(), and __call() in PHP?

First, I completely understand how to implement __get and __set methods in PHP and have come across scenarios where using these methods is beneficial.

However, I have encountered, and written, code that looks like the following:

class SomeObject {

    protected $data = array();

    public function __set($key, $val) {
        $this->data[$key] = $val;
    }

    public function __get($key) {
        return $this->data[$key];
    }

}

Why do we need to do this? I have used objects with no __get or __set methods defined and can still add undefined properties, retrieve the values associated with those properties, invoke isset() and unset() on those properties.

Do we really need to implement these magic methods, using code like above, when objects in PHP already exhibit similar behavior?

Note, I’m not referring to when more code is used in the __set and __get methods for special handling of the data requested but very basic implementation like the code above.

Answer 1

If you are using them just as a glorified wrapper over an array (i.e. absolutely no extra logic), I don’t believe they offer any benefit. They do offer a drawback however, in that you need to write the code for them. And that code may be buggy or incomplete.

Did you leave out __isset for brevity? Because if you do use __get and __set but do not provide an __isset, you ‘ve just written yourself a bug.

See what I did there?