How to Cast Objects in PHP

Question

Ive some classes that share some attributes, and i would like to do something like:

$dog = (Dog) $cat;

is it possible or is there any gener

Answer 1

a better aproach:

class Animal
{
    private $_name = null;

    public function __construct($name = null)
    {
        $this->_name = $name;
    }

    /**
     * casts object
     * @param Animal $to
     * @return Animal
     */
    public function cast($to)
    {
        if ($to instanceof Animal) {
            $to->_name = $this->_name;
        } else {
            throw(new Exception('cant cast ' . get_class($this) . ' to ' . get_class($to)));
        return $to;
    }

    public function getName()
    {
        return $this->_name;
    }
}

class Cat extends Animal
{
    private $_preferedKindOfFish = null;

    public function __construct($name = null, $preferedKindOfFish = null)
    {
        parent::__construct($name);
        $this->_preferedKindOfFish = $preferedKindOfFish;
    }

    /**
     * casts object
     * @param Animal $to
     * @return Animal
     */
    public function cast($to)
    {
        parent::cast($to);
        if ($to instanceof Cat) {
            $to->_preferedKindOfFish = $this->_preferedKindOfFish;
        }
        return $to;
    }

    public function getPreferedKindOfFish()
    {
        return $this->_preferedKindOfFish;
    }
}

class Dog extends Animal
{
    private $_preferedKindOfCat = null;

    public function __construct($name = null, $preferedKindOfCat = null)
    {
        parent::__construct($name);
        $this->_preferedKindOfCat = $preferedKindOfCat;
    }

    /**
     * casts object
     * @param Animal $to
     * @return Animal
     */
    public function cast($to)
    {
        parent::cast($to);
        if ($to instanceof Dog) {
            $to->_preferedKindOfCat = $this->_preferedKindOfCat;
        }
        return $to;
    }

    public function getPreferedKindOfCat()
    {
        return $this->_preferedKindOfCat;
    }
}

$dogs = array(
    new Dog('snoopy', 'vegetarian'),
    new Dog('coyote', 'any'),
);

foreach ($dogs as $dog) {
    $cat = $dog->cast(new Cat());
    echo get_class($cat) . ' - ' . $cat->getName() . "\n";
}