Question

Why does this return an array instead of an object and how can I return an object?

Class MyClass {
    private $filename = '...';
    private $_ini_array;

    public function __construct() {
        // Get the config file data
        $ini_array = parse_ini_file( $filename, true );
        $this->_ini_array = $ini_array;
    }

    public function __get( $param ) {
        return $this->_ini_array[ $param ];
    }
}

called by…

$c = new MyClass();
var_dump( $c->db_pgsql );

returns…

array(6) {
  ["data"]=>
  string(4) "test"
  ...

and casting by…

return (object) $this->_ini_array;

returns…

object(stdClass)#2 (6) {
  ["data"]=>
  string(4) "test"
  ...

while I wish to return…

object(MyClass)#2 (6) {
  ["data"]=>
  string(4) "test"
  ...

Many Thanks!

Update. Solved.

I ended up writing the following class that pretty much accomplishes my goals. Please comment if you see any bad habits, sloppy code, etc.

class Config {
    private $config_filename = '../include/config.ini';


    public function __construct( array $array=null ){
        if ( $array ) {
            foreach ( $array as $key => $val ) {
                $this->$key = $val;
            }
        } else {
            $ini_array = parse_ini_file( $this->config_filename, true );

            foreach( $ini_array as $key => $val ){
                $this->$key = new self( $val );
            }
        }
    }


    public function __get( $param ) {
        return $this->$param;
    }
}

Which, with my particular test config file, produces an object that looks like…

VarDump: object(Config)#1 (3) {
    ["config_filename:private"]=>
    string(21) "../include/config.ini"
    ["heading1"]=>
    object(Config)#2 (3) {
        ["config_filename:private"]=>
        string(21) "../include/config.ini"
        ["str1"]=>
        string(4) "test"
        ["str2"]=>
        string(5) "test2"
    }
    ["heading2"]=>
    object(Config)#3 (2) {
        ["config_filename:private"]=>
        string(21) "../include/config.ini"
        ["str1"]=>
        string(9) "testagain"
    }
}

I would have preferred not to have recursively duplicated the [“config_filename:private”] property like it did. But I couldn’t conceive a way around it. So if you know of a workaround then I’d appreciate a comment.

Thanks for all the help to get me in the right direction.

Answer 1

Why does this return an array instead of an object[…]

The only thing I see setting $this->_ini_array is the return value of parse_ini_file, which returns an array (an array of arrays).

how can I return an object?

You’ll need to iterate over the pertinent array and populate an object manually.