On Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 10:49 PM, Ray Hauge <ray.hauge.lists@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Nathan Nobbe wrote: > > if we were going to see support for anything anonymous that i would > > welcome it would be anonymous objects and the ability to create an > > object on the fly from an interface as per java 5. > > I'm not sure if this would solve your problem (my lack of java knowledge > is showing), but you can create objects either by creating a new > stdClass() object, or by using (object)NULL. Example: > ive messed around w/ stdClass and use it more frequently than most i imagine, but mostly just as a data transport mechanism. sometimes i prefer it over an array, what can i say i like the -> ;) but seriously, using it as an anonymous object doesnt really work. there are some posts on php.netabout this actually (search for anonymous object) http://www.php.net/zend-engine-2.php > <?php > > $object = (object) NULL; > > $object->test1 = 1; > $object->test2 = 2; > > echo $object->test1 . "\n"; > > echo $object->test2; > > ?> > > After trying to add a way to call a function from an object variable, I > have come to the conclusion that it's kinda ugly. > > <?php > > $obj = (object) NULL; > > $obj->test = 2; > $obj->myTestFunc = "myTestFunc"; > > function myTestFunc () { > return "test"; > } > > echo call_user_func($obj->myTestFunc) . $obj->test; > > ?> ive tried experimenting w/ making php more functional, attempting to attach methods in one way or another to an object, but alas, my attempts have all been quite fleeting :( > Does anyone have a link to some documentation about the stdClass? All I > could find was a bunch of bug reports and other stuff that wasn't what I > was looking for. I would have thought there'd be a page for it in the > manual, but I didn't find one there either. php --rc stdClass thats about all there is :) but it is nice for usage in conjunction w/ json_encode(). and just to give you an idea what you can do in java (note nothing like javascript which is why i think its applicable to php [because its already similar to java]) suppose you have a class, class N { function b() { echo 'b'; } } you can create an anonymous sub class like this (added twisted php notation to give good visual of what could be possible) $n = new N() { function b() { echo "b's been overriden"; } }; and you can do the same w/ an interface as well, just swap class by interface in the definition of N above. you can even do this when supplying an actual parameter to a method call, something like function callBOnN(N $n) { $n->b(); } now suppose you dont have an implementation of N, suppose its an interface or you dont like the base N class (if it were a class) or you like it you just dont have an instance of it or whatever, you could do this, callBOnN(new N() { function b() { echo 'defined this b on the fly!'; } }); thats some cool stuff and personally i would much rather see php take this route than mess around w/ closures. it seems much more natural to me (as far as the future direction of php). but then again i feel like im way more into oop than most people on the list let alone the php community as a whole so likely im hopelessly outnumbered. -nathan
