PHP object like array

Question

I need to be able to set my object like this:

$obj->foo = 'bar';

then after that is set i need the following to be true

if($obj['foo'] == 'bar'){
  //more code here
}

Answer 1

Your object must implement the ArrayAccess interface, then PHP will allow you to use the square brackets like that.

Answer 2

You can access PHP object as PHP array, but in different ways. Try this:

$obj->{'foo'}

That is similar with accessing array like this:

$arr['foo']

You can also do this:

$propertyName = 'foo';
$obj->$propertyName; // same like first example

Answer 3

You'll have to implement the ArrayAccess interface to be able to do that -- which only means implementing a few (4 to be exact) simple methods :

• ArrayAccess::offsetExists : Whether or not an offset exists.
• ArrayAccess::offsetGet : Returns the value at specified offset.
• ArrayAccess::offsetSet : Assigns a value to the specified offset.
• and ArrayAccess::offsetUnset : Unsets an offset.

There is a full example on the manual's page I pointed to ;-)