PHP and Enumerations

Question

I know that PHP doesn't have native Enumerations. But I have become accustomed to them from the Java world. I would love to use enums as a way to give predefined values which IDEs' auto completion features could understand.

Constants do the trick, but there's the namespace collision problem and (or actually because) they're global. Arrays don't have the namespace problem, but they're too vague, they can be overwritten at runtime and IDEs rarely (never?) know how to autofill their keys.

Are there any solutions/workarounds you commonly use? Does anyone recall whether the PHP guys have had any thoughts or decisions around enums?

Answer 1

Well, for a simple java like enum in php, I use:

class SomeTypeName {
    private static $enum = array(1 => "Read", 2 => "Write");

    public function toOrdinal($name) {
        return array_search($name, self::$enum);
    }

    public function toString($ordinal) {
        return self::$enum[$ordinal];
    }
}

And to call it:

SomeTypeName::toOrdinal("Read");
SomeTypeName::toString(1);

But I'm a PHP beginner, struggling with the syntax so this might not be the best way. I experimented some with Class Constants, using Reflection to get the constant name from it's value, might be neater.

Answer 2

Four years later I came across this again. My current approach is this as it allows for code completion in the IDE as well as type safety:

Base class:

abstract class TypedEnum
{
    private static $_instancedValues;

    private $_value;
    private $_name;

    private function __construct($value, $name)
    {
        $this->_value = $value;
        $this->_name = $name;
    }

    private static function _fromGetter($getter, $value)
    {
        $reflectionClass = new ReflectionClass(get_called_class());
        $methods = $reflectionClass->getMethods(ReflectionMethod::IS_STATIC | ReflectionMethod::IS_PUBLIC);    
        $className = get_called_class();

        foreach($methods as $method)
        {
            if ($method->class === $className)
            {
                $enumItem = $method->invoke(null);

                if ($enumItem instanceof $className && $enumItem->$getter() === $value)
                {
                    return $enumItem;
                }
            }
        }

        throw new OutOfRangeException();
    }

    protected static function _create($value)
    {
        if (self::$_instancedValues === null)
        {
            self::$_instancedValues = array();
        }

        $className = get_called_class();

        if (!isset(self::$_instancedValues[$className]))
        {
            self::$_instancedValues[$className] = array();
        }

        if (!isset(self::$_instancedValues[$className][$value]))
        {
            $debugTrace = debug_backtrace();
            $lastCaller = array_shift($debugTrace);

            while ($lastCaller['class'] !== $className && count($debugTrace) > 0)
            {
                $lastCaller = array_shift($debugTrace);
            }

            self::$_instancedValues[$className][$value] = new static($value, $lastCaller['function']);
        }

        return self::$_instancedValues[$className][$value];
    }

    public static function fromValue($value)
    {
        return self::_fromGetter('getValue', $value);
    }

    public static function fromName($value)
    {
        return self::_fromGetter('getName', $value);
    }

    public function getValue()
    {
        return $this->_value;
    }

    public function getName()
    {
        return $this->_name;
    }
}

Example Enum:

final class DaysOfWeek extends TypedEnum
{
    public static function Sunday() { return self::_create(0); }    
    public static function Monday() { return self::_create(1); }
    public static function Tuesday() { return self::_create(2); }   
    public static function Wednesday() { return self::_create(3); }
    public static function Thursday() { return self::_create(4); }  
    public static function Friday() { return self::_create(5); }
    public static function Saturday() { return self::_create(6); }      
}

Example usage:

function saveEvent(DaysOfWeek $weekDay, $comment)
{
    // store week day numeric value and comment:
    $myDatabase->save('myeventtable', 
       array('weekday_id' => $weekDay->getValue()),
       array('comment' => $comment));
}

// call the function, note: DaysOfWeek::Monday() returns an object of type DaysOfWeek
saveEvent(DaysOfWeek::Monday(), 'some comment');

Note that all instances of the same enum entry are the same:

$monday1 = DaysOfWeek::Monday();
$monday2 = DaysOfWeek::Monday();
$monday1 === $monday2; // true

You can also use it inside of a switch statement:

function getGermanWeekDayName(DaysOfWeek $weekDay)
{
    switch ($weekDay)
    {
        case DaysOfWeek::Monday(): return 'Montag';
        case DaysOfWeek::Tuesday(): return 'Dienstag';
        // ...
}

You can also create an enum entry by name or value:

$monday = DaysOfWeek::fromValue(2);
$tuesday = DaysOfWeek::fromName('Tuesday');

Or you can just get the name (i.e. the function name) from an existing enum entry:

$wednesday = DaysOfWeek::Wednesday()
echo $wednesDay->getName(); // Wednesday

Answer 3

Some good solutions on here!

Here's my version.

• It's strongly typed
• It works with IDE auto-completion
• Enums are defined by a code and a description, where the code can be an integer, a binary value, a short string, or basically anything else you want. The pattern could easily be extended to support orther properties.
• It asupports value (==) and reference (===) comparisons and works in switch statements.

I think the main disadvantage is that enum members do have to be separately declared and instantiated, due to the descriptions and PHP's inability to construct objects at static member declaration time. I guess a way round this might be to use reflection with parsed doc comments instead.

The abstract enum looks like this:

<?php

abstract class AbstractEnum
{
    /** @var array cache of all enum instances by class name and integer value */
    private static $allEnumMembers = array();

    /** @var mixed */
    private $code;

    /** @var string */
    private $description;

    /**
     * Return an enum instance of the concrete type on which this static method is called, assuming an instance
     * exists for the passed in value.  Otherwise an exception is thrown.
     *
     * @param $code
     * @return AbstractEnum
     * @throws Exception
     */
    public static function getByCode($code)
    {
        $concreteMembers = &self::getConcreteMembers();

        if (array_key_exists($code, $concreteMembers)) {
            return $concreteMembers[$code];
        }

        throw new Exception("Value '$code' does not exist for enum '".get_called_class()."'");
    }

    public static function getAllMembers()
    {
        return self::getConcreteMembers();
    }

    /**
     * Create, cache and return an instance of the concrete enum type for the supplied primitive value.
     *
     * @param mixed $code code to uniquely identify this enum
     * @param string $description
     * @throws Exception
     * @return AbstractEnum
     */
    protected static function enum($code, $description)
    {
        $concreteMembers = &self::getConcreteMembers();

        if (array_key_exists($code, $concreteMembers)) {
            throw new Exception("Value '$code' has already been added to enum '".get_called_class()."'");
        }

        $concreteMembers[$code] = $concreteEnumInstance = new static($code, $description);

        return $concreteEnumInstance;
    }

    /**
     * @return AbstractEnum[]
     */
    private static function &getConcreteMembers() {
        $thisClassName = get_called_class();

        if (!array_key_exists($thisClassName, self::$allEnumMembers)) {
            $concreteMembers = array();
            self::$allEnumMembers[$thisClassName] = $concreteMembers;
        }

        return self::$allEnumMembers[$thisClassName];
    }

    private function __construct($code, $description)
    {
        $this->code = $code;
        $this->description = $description;
    }

    public function getCode()
    {
        return $this->code;
    }

    public function getDescription()
    {
        return $this->description;
    }
}

Here's an example concrete enum:

<?php

require('AbstractEnum.php');

class EMyEnum extends AbstractEnum
{
    /** @var EMyEnum */
    public static $MY_FIRST_VALUE;
    /** @var EMyEnum */
    public static $MY_SECOND_VALUE;
    /** @var EMyEnum */
    public static $MY_THIRD_VALUE;

    public static function _init()
    {
        self::$MY_FIRST_VALUE = self::enum(1, 'My first value');
        self::$MY_SECOND_VALUE = self::enum(2, 'My second value');
        self::$MY_THIRD_VALUE = self::enum(3, 'My third value');
    }
}

EMyEnum::_init();

Which can be used like this:

<?php

require('EMyEnum.php');

echo EMyEnum::$MY_FIRST_VALUE->getCode().' : '.EMyEnum::$MY_FIRST_VALUE->getDescription().PHP_EOL.PHP_EOL;

var_dump(EMyEnum::getAllMembers());

echo PHP_EOL.EMyEnum::getByCode(2)->getDescription().PHP_EOL;

And produces this output:

1 : My first value

array(3) {
[1]=>
object(EMyEnum)#1 (2) {
["code":"AbstractEnum":private]=>
int(1)
["description":"AbstractEnum":private]=>
string(14) "My first value"
}
[2]=>
object(EMyEnum)#2 (2) {
["code":"AbstractEnum":private]=>
int(2)
["description":"AbstractEnum":private]=>
string(15) "My second value"
}
[3]=>
object(EMyEnum)#3 (2) {
["code":"AbstractEnum":private]=>
int(3)
["description":"AbstractEnum":private]=>
string(14) "My third value"
}
}

My second value

Answer 4

I made a library based on Brian Cline's answer, it is named greg0ire/enum Enjoy!

Answer 5

Now you can use The SplEnum class to build it natively. As per the official documentation.

SplEnum gives the ability to emulate and create enumeration objects natively in PHP.

<?php
class Month extends SplEnum {
    const __default = self::January;

    const January = 1;
    const February = 2;
    const March = 3;
    const April = 4;
    const May = 5;
    const June = 6;
    const July = 7;
    const August = 8;
    const September = 9;
    const October = 10;
    const November = 11;
    const December = 12;
}

echo new Month(Month::June) . PHP_EOL;

try {
    new Month(13);
} catch (UnexpectedValueException $uve) {
    echo $uve->getMessage() . PHP_EOL;
}
?>

Please note, it's an extension which has to be installed, but not available by default. Which comes under Special Types described in the php website itself. The above example is taken from the PHP site.

Answer 6

Depending upon use case, I would normally use something simple like the following:

abstract class DaysOfWeek
{
    const Sunday = 0;
    const Monday = 1;
    // etc.
}

$today = DaysOfWeek::Sunday;

However, other use cases may require more validation of constants and values. Based on the comments below about reflection, and a few other notes, here's an expanded example which may better serve a much wider range of cases:

abstract class BasicEnum {
    private static $constCacheArray = NULL;

    private static function getConstants() {
        if (self::$constCacheArray == NULL) {
            self::$constCacheArray = [];
        }
        $calledClass = get_called_class();
        if (!array_key_exists($calledClass, self::$constCacheArray)) {
            $reflect = new ReflectionClass($calledClass);
            self::$constCacheArray[$calledClass] = $reflect->getConstants();
        }
        return self::$constCacheArray[$calledClass];
    }

    public static function isValidName($name, $strict = false) {
        $constants = self::getConstants();

        if ($strict) {
            return array_key_exists($name, $constants);
        }

        $keys = array_map('strtolower', array_keys($constants));
        return in_array(strtolower($name), $keys);
    }

    public static function isValidValue($value, $strict = true) {
        $values = array_values(self::getConstants());
        return in_array($value, $values, $strict);
    }
}

By creating a simple enum class that extends BasicEnum, you now have the ability to use methods thusly for simple input validation:

abstract class DaysOfWeek extends BasicEnum {
    const Sunday = 0;
    const Monday = 1;
    const Tuesday = 2;
    const Wednesday = 3;
    const Thursday = 4;
    const Friday = 5;
    const Saturday = 6;
}

DaysOfWeek::isValidName('Humpday');                  // false
DaysOfWeek::isValidName('Monday');                   // true
DaysOfWeek::isValidName('monday');                   // true
DaysOfWeek::isValidName('monday', $strict = true);   // false
DaysOfWeek::isValidName(0);                          // false

DaysOfWeek::isValidValue(0);                         // true
DaysOfWeek::isValidValue(5);                         // true
DaysOfWeek::isValidValue(7);                         // false
DaysOfWeek::isValidValue('Friday');                  // false

As a side note, any time I use reflection at least once on a static/const class where the data won't change (such as in an enum), I cache the results of those reflection calls, since using fresh reflection objects each time will eventually have a noticeable performance impact (Stored in an assocciative array for multiple enums).

Now that most people have finally upgraded to at least 5.3, and SplEnum is available, that is certainly a viable option as well--as long as you don't mind the traditionally unintuitive notion of having actual enum instantiations throughout your codebase. In the above example, BasicEnum and DaysOfWeek cannot be instantiated at all, nor should they be.