How to automatically apply values to class variables in PHP without using try/catch [duplicate]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
PHP - Initialize object members with array parameter

I am looking for a way to have my class apply data from an associative array to its own member variables. However, if those variables do not exist, the process should not throw any errors.

Please note: i am either not looking for what the extract() function does or i misunderstand its behaviour.

Example:

class customer {

    public $firstName;
    public $lastName;
    public $email;

    public function apply($data){
        /* here i want to be able to iterate through $data and set the class
           variables according to the keys, but without causing problems 
           (and without creating the variable in the class) if it does not exist
           (yet)) */
    }

}

$c=new customer();
$c->apply(array(
    'firstName' => 'Max',
    'lastName'  => 'Earthman',
    'email'     => '[email protected]'
));

Hope the description is proper.

Please ask if anything is unclear.

Any reason why you don't want to catch the exception for a missing attribute? — millimoose
– millimoose, Commented Oct 7, 2012 at 16:29
Honestly, i just felt like there must be a more elegant way and i was looking for that. — SQRCAT
– SQRCAT, Commented Oct 7, 2012 at 16:30
hakre: Thanks for the info! Of course its the instance we talk about. Darshan: i use a constructor but for different things - in this example i cut it down to the bare necessities. — SQRCAT
– SQRCAT, Commented Oct 7, 2012 at 16:34

Baba · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-07 16:35:09Z

2

You can do something like this

class customer {
    public $firstName;
    public $lastName;
    public $email;

    public function apply($data) {
        $var = get_class_vars(__CLASS__);
        foreach ( $data as $key => $value ) {
            if (array_key_exists($key, $var)) {
                $this->$key = $value;
            }
        }
    }
}

$c = new customer();
$c->apply(array('firstName' => 'Max','lastName' => 'Earthman','email' => '[email protected]',"aaa" => "bbb"));
var_dump($c);

Output

object(customer)[1]
  public 'firstName' => string 'Max' (length=3)
  public 'lastName' => string 'Earthman' (length=8)
  public 'email' => string '[email protected]' (length=16)

edited Oct 7, 2012 at 16:35

answered Oct 7, 2012 at 16:29

Baba

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4 Comments

hakre Over a year ago

Baba, you're too fast answering.

Baba Over a year ago

@hakre ..........lol ...lol .............. lol ....

SQRCAT Over a year ago

That looks very promising, but am i correctly assuming that if $this->$key is not existant, it will be created and $value will be applied to it? Because i would like to avoid that. Before you edited your question you had an isset() condition included, why was that removed - is it not working?

SQRCAT Over a year ago

Looks promising! Will be tested in a minute.

Philip Whitehouse · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-07 16:39:07Z

0

//Works for private as of 5.3.0 
//Will also return statics though.

public function apply($data){
   foreach($data  as $key => $val) {
      if(property_exists('customer',$key)) {
         $this->$key = $val;
      }
   } 
}

If this is coming from a database there are functions to return the object directly rather than having to apply the associated array to a class. Just a thought.

answered Oct 7, 2012 at 16:39

Philip Whitehouse

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