Cannot use string offset as an array in php

Question

I\'m trying to simulate this error with a sample php code but haven\'t been successful. Any help would be great.

\"Cannot use string offset as an array\"

Answer 1

I was fighting a similar problem, so documenting here in case useful.

In a __get() method I was using the given argument as a property, as in (simplified example):

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

...i.e. $obj->fred would access the private/protected fred property of the class.

I found that when I needed to reference an array structure within this property it generated the Cannot use String offset as array error. Here's what I did wrong and how to correct it:

function __get($prop) {
     // this is wrong, generates the error
     return $this->$prop['some key'][0];
}

function __get($prop) {
     // this is correct
     $ref = & $this->$prop;
     return $ref['some key'][0];
}

Explanation: in the wrong example, php is interpreting ['some key'] as a key to $prop (a string), whereas we need it to dereference $prop in place. In Perl you could do this by specifying with {} but I don't think this is possible in PHP.