Does PHP have an answer to Java style class generics?

Question

Upon building an MVC framework in PHP I ran into a problem which could be solved easily using Java style generics. An abstract Controller class might look something like thi

Answer 1

To provide a high level of static code-analysis, strict typing and usability, i came up with this solution: https://gist.github.com/rickhub/aa6cb712990041480b11d5624a60b53b

/**
 * Class GenericCollection
 */
class GenericCollection implements \IteratorAggregate, \ArrayAccess{
    /**
     * @var string
     */
    private $type;

    /**
     * @var array
     */
    private $items = [];

    /**
     * GenericCollection constructor.
     *
     * @param string $type
     */
    public function __construct(string $type){
        $this->type = $type;
    }

    /**
     * @param $item
     *
     * @return bool
     */
    protected function checkType($item): bool{
        $type = $this->getType();
        return $item instanceof $type;
    }

    /**
     * @return string
     */
    public function getType(): string{
        return $this->type;
    }

    /**
     * @param string $type
     *
     * @return bool
     */
    public function isType(string $type): bool{
        return $this->type === $type;
    }

    #region IteratorAggregate

    /**
     * @return \Traversable|$type
     */
    public function getIterator(): \Traversable{
        return new \ArrayIterator($this->items);
    }

    #endregion

    #region ArrayAccess

    /**
     * @param mixed $offset
     *
     * @return bool
     */
    public function offsetExists($offset){
        return isset($this->items[$offset]);
    }

    /**
     * @param mixed $offset
     *
     * @return mixed|null
     */
    public function offsetGet($offset){
        return isset($this->items[$offset]) ? $this->items[$offset] : null;
    }

    /**
     * @param mixed $offset
     * @param mixed $item
     */
    public function offsetSet($offset, $item){
        if(!$this->checkType($item)){
            throw new \InvalidArgumentException('invalid type');
        }
        $offset !== null ? $this->items[$offset] = $item : $this->items[] = $item;
    }

    /**
     * @param mixed $offset
     */
    public function offsetUnset($offset){
        unset($this->items[$offset]);
    }

    #endregion
}


/**
 * Class Item
 */
class Item{
    /**
     * @var int
     */
    public $id = null;

    /**
     * @var string
     */
    public $data = null;

    /**
     * Item constructor.
     *
     * @param int    $id
     * @param string $data
     */
    public function __construct(int $id, string $data){
        $this->id = $id;
        $this->data = $data;
    }
}


/**
 * Class ItemCollection
 */
class ItemCollection extends GenericCollection{
    /**
     * ItemCollection constructor.
     */
    public function __construct(){
        parent::__construct(Item::class);
    }

    /**
     * @return \Traversable|Item[]
     */
    public function getIterator(): \Traversable{
        return parent::getIterator();
    }
}


/**
 * Class ExampleService
 */
class ExampleService{
    /**
     * @var ItemCollection
     */
    private $items = null;

    /**
     * SomeService constructor.
     *
     * @param ItemCollection $items
     */
    public function __construct(ItemCollection $items){
        $this->items = $items;
    }

    /**
     * @return void
     */
    public function list(){
        foreach($this->items as $item){
            echo $item->data;
        }
    }
}


/**
 * Usage
 */
$collection = new ItemCollection;
$collection[] = new Item(1, 'foo');
$collection[] = new Item(2, 'bar');
$collection[] = new Item(3, 'foobar');

$collection[] = 42; // InvalidArgumentException: invalid type

$service = new ExampleService($collection);
$service->list();

Even if something like this would feel so much better:

class ExampleService{
    public function __construct(Collection $items){
        // ..
    }
}

Hope generics will get into PHP soon.