Casting object to array - any magic method being called?

Question

I have an object of class Foo:

class Foo extends Bar {
    protected $a;
    protected $b;
}

$obj = new Foo();

What I want (and have) to d

Answer 1

Sadly no, casting to array doesn't trigger any magic method like it is done with:

$s = (string)$obj;

which triggers __toString() method and which you can override.

However, you may write a custom toArray() method.

You may also be interested in the Serializable interface which allows you to write custom serializer strategy.

Answer 2

No

There is no __toArray magic method in PHP. An enhancement proposal has been rejected in 2006 with the following answer:

[2006-08-20 11:12 UTC] helly@php.net

Why not simply have a method asArray() maybe even as par of an interface:

interface ArrayConversion { function asArray(); }

See, we have __toString as it is supported in language constructs like echo, print and other internal functions. But we decided against an autoconversion for arrays already. So itwill never be supported in any language construct. That said there is no needed for this and nothing you would win against the above interface. In fact you would make it php more complex because you'd add just one more magic feature.

It is thus very unlikely that it will be implemented in any future release (which is a pity, if you ask me).

Answer 3

Not sure if this question still relevant, but php has builtin ArrayObject class, that allows to treat object as array and can be handy when used as container for database record or collection.

It might be not a best practice in regards to strict types, but it allows to treat object as array and both statements are valid.

$obj = new ArrayObject(['a' => 'alpha']);
var_dump($obj['a']); //alpha
var_dump($obj->getOffset('a'));//alpha

However you need to keep in mind behaviour of ArrayObject

$obj = new ArrayObject(['a' => 'alpha']);
//Access Property
var_dump($obj['a']); //alpha
var_dump($obj->offsetGet('a'));//alpha
var_dump($obj->a); //null Notice: Undefined property: ArrayObject::$a

//Serialization
var_dump(serialize($obj));// string 'C:11:"ArrayObject":41:{x:i:0;a:1:{s:1:"a";s:5:"alpha";};m:a:0:{}}' (length=65)
var_dump($obj->serialize());// string 'x:i:0;a:1:{s:1:"a";s:5:"alpha";};m:a:0:{}'
var_dump(serialize($obj) === $obj->serialize());// false !!!

//Setting Properties
$obj['b'] = 'beta'; //OK
$obj->c = 'gamma'; //value becomes object property!!!
var_dump($obj);
/* OBJECT DUMP
object(ArrayObject)[13]
  public 'c' => string 'gamma' (length=5)
  private 'storage' =>
    array (size=2)
      'a' => string 'alpha' (length=5)
      'b' => string 'beta' (length=4)
 */

//Property validation as array
var_dump(isset($obj['a']));//true
var_dump(isset($obj['b']));//true
var_dump(isset($obj['c']));//false
//Property validation as object
var_dump(isset($obj->a));//false
var_dump(isset($obj->b));//false
var_dump(isset($obj->c));//true

//Typecasting
var_dump((array)$obj);
/*
array (size=2)
  'a' => string 'alpha' (length=5)
  'b' => string 'beta' (length=4)
 */

//var_dump((string)$obj);// Catchable fatal error: Object of class ArrayObject could not be converted to string

ArrayObject accepts two flags ArrayObject::STD_PROP_LIST as default and ArrayObject::ARRAY_AS_PROPS as alternative.

This would change behaviour for reading values but does not support setting new properties in that way, here is example:

$obj = new ArrayObject(['a' => 'alpha'], ArrayObject::ARRAY_AS_PROPS);
//Access Property
var_dump($obj['a']); //alpha
var_dump($obj->offsetGet('a'));//alpha
var_dump($obj->a);//alpha

//Serialization
var_dump(serialize($obj));// string 'C:11:"ArrayObject":41:{x:i:0;a:1:{s:1:"a";s:5:"alpha";};m:a:0:{}}' (length=65)
var_dump($obj->serialize());// string 'x:i:0;a:1:{s:1:"a";s:5:"alpha";};m:a:0:{}'
var_dump(serialize($obj) === $obj->serialize());// false !!!

//Setting Properties
$obj['b'] = 'beta'; //OK
$obj->c = 'gamma'; //OK
var_dump($obj);
/* OBJECT DUMP
object(ArrayObject)[14]
  private 'storage' =>
    array (size=3)
      'a' => string 'alpha' (length=5)
      'b' => string 'beta' (length=4)
      'c' => string 'gamma' (length=5)
 */

//Property validation as array
var_dump(isset($obj['a']));//true
var_dump(isset($obj['b']));//true
var_dump(isset($obj['c']));//false !!!
//Property validation as object
var_dump(isset($obj->a));//true
var_dump(isset($obj->b));//true
var_dump(isset($obj->c));//true

//Typecasting
var_dump((array)$obj);
/*
array (size=2)
  'a' => string 'alpha' (length=5)
  'b' => string 'beta' (length=4)
 */

To make this behaviour more consistent you would have to extend this class and implement magic methods __get(), __set(), __isset() and __unset().

Another tricky part is serialization, default method serialize would return you a copy serialized $storage variable instead of object itself, as workaround to return serialized copy of instance you can implement default serialization in __toString method, this way it's behave correctly.

class FooObject extends ArrayObject
{
    public function __get($index)
    {
        if ($this->offsetExists($index)) {
            return $this->offsetGet($index);
        } else {
            throw new UnexpectedValueException('Undefined key ' . $index);
        }
    }

    public function __set($index, $value)
    {
        $this->offsetSet($index, $value);
        return $this;
    }

    public function __isset($index)
    {
        return $this->offsetExists($index);
    }

    public function __unset($index)
    {
        return $this->offsetUnset($index);
    }

    public function __toString()
    {
        return serialize($this);
    }
}

Example of usage

$obj2 = new FooObject(['a' => 'alpha']);
//Access Property
var_dump($obj2['a']); //alpha
var_dump($obj2->offsetGet('a'));//alpha
var_dump($obj2->a); //alpha

//Serialization
var_dump(serialize($obj));// string 'C:11:"ArrayObject":41:{x:i:0;a:1:{s:1:"a";s:5:"alpha";};m:a:0:{}}' (length=65)
var_dump($obj->serialize());// string 'x:i:0;a:1:{s:1:"a";s:5:"alpha";};m:a:0:{}'
var_dump(serialize($obj) === $obj->serialize());// false !!!

//Setting Properties
$obj2['b'] = 'beta'; //OK
$obj2->c = 'gamma'; //OK
var_dump($obj2);
/* OBJECT DUMP
object(FooObject)[14]
  private 'storage' (ArrayObject) =>
    array (size=3)
      'a' => string 'alpha' (length=5)
      'b' => string 'beta' (length=4)
      'c' => string 'gamma' (length=5)
 */

//Property validation as array
var_dump(isset($obj2['a']));//true
var_dump(isset($obj2['b']));//true
var_dump(isset($obj2['c']));//true
//Property validation as object
var_dump(isset($obj2->a));//true
var_dump(isset($obj2->b));//true
var_dump(isset($obj2->c));//true

//Typecasting
var_dump((array)$obj2);
/*
array (size=3)
  'a' => string 'alpha' (length=5)
  'b' => string 'beta' (length=4)
  'c' => string 'gamma' (length=5)
 */

Answer 4

You can have the class implement the ArrayAccess interface. This will allow you to treat the object like an array without casting and you get total control over how the members are used.

Answer 5

One way to do this, without changing the original class definition is to use reflection. This allows to you examine the class's properties at runtime.

Taken from the manual: http://www.php.net/manual/en/reflectionclass.getproperties.php

<?php
class Foo {
    public    $foo  = 1;
    protected $bar  = 2;
    private   $baz  = 3;
}

$foo = new Foo();

$reflect = new ReflectionClass($foo);
$props   = $reflect->getProperties(ReflectionProperty::IS_PUBLIC | ReflectionProperty::IS_PROTECTED);

foreach ($props as $prop) {
    print $prop->getName() . "\n";
}

var_dump($props);

?>

The above example will output something similar to:
foo
bar
array(2) {
  [0]=>
  object(ReflectionProperty)#3 (2) {
    ["name"]=>
    string(3) "foo"
    ["class"]=>
    string(3) "Foo"
  }
  [1]=>
  object(ReflectionProperty)#4 (2) {
    ["name"]=>
    string(3) "bar"
    ["class"]=>
    string(3) "Foo"
  }
}

Answer 6

You can use get_object_vars($yourObject) that will return an associative array of all property names/values accessible from the context.

See http://php.net/manual/en/function.get-object-vars.php

A you want to access protected or private properties, my advice would be to extend ArrayObject, that implements the method getArrayCopy()