Is there a __equals method in PHP like there is in Java?

Question

Is there a pattern or magic method you can use in PHP to define when to compare two instances of a class?

For example, in Java I could easily override the equa

Answer 1

If you want to compare your custom object, you can do it like this:

$time1 = new MyTimeClass("09:35:12");
$time2 = new MyTimeClass("09:36:09");

if($time1 > $time2) echo "Time1 is bigger";
else echo "Time2 is bigger";

//result: Time2 is bigger

It compares the first property found in the class, in my case an int value that holds the total number of seconds in the given time. If you put the $seconds property on top you'll notice that it gives an unexpected 'Time1 is bigger'.

class MyTimeClass {
    public $intValue;
    public $hours;
    public $minutes;
    public $seconds;

    public function __construct($str){
        $array = explode(":",$str);
        $this->hours = $array[0];
        $this->minutes = $array[1];
        $this->seconds = $array[2];
        $this->intValue = ($this->hours * 3600) + ($this->minutes * 60) + $this->seconds;
    }
}