Getter and Setter?

Question

I'm not a PHP developer, so I'm wondering if in PHP is more popular to use explicit getter/setters, in a pure OOP style, with private fields (the way I like):

class MyClass {
    private $firstField;
    private $secondField;

    public function getFirstField() {
        return $this->firstField;
    }
    public function setFirstField($x) {
        $this->firstField = $x;
    }
    public function getSecondField() {
        return $this->secondField;
    }
    public function setSecondField($x) {
        $this->secondField = $x;
    }
}

or just public fields:

class MyClass {
    public $firstField;
    public $secondField;
}

Thanks

Answer 1

If you preffer to use the __call function, you can use this method. It works with

• GET => $this->property()
• SET => $this->property($value)
• GET => $this->getProperty()
• SET => $this->setProperty($value)

kalsdas

public function __call($name, $arguments) {

    //Getting and setting with $this->property($optional);

    if (property_exists(get_class($this), $name)) {


        //Always set the value if a parameter is passed
        if (count($arguments) == 1) {
            /* set */
            $this->$name = $arguments[0];
        } else if (count($arguments) > 1) {
            throw new \Exception("Setter for $name only accepts one parameter.");
        }

        //Always return the value (Even on the set)
        return $this->$name;
    }

    //If it doesn't chech if its a normal old type setter ot getter
    //Getting and setting with $this->getProperty($optional);
    //Getting and setting with $this->setProperty($optional);
    $prefix = substr($name, 0, 3);
    $property = strtolower($name[3]) . substr($name, 4);
    switch ($prefix) {
        case 'get':
            return $this->$property;
            break;
        case 'set':
            //Always set the value if a parameter is passed
            if (count($arguments) != 1) {
                throw new \Exception("Setter for $name requires exactly one parameter.");
            }
            $this->$property = $arguments[0];
            //Always return the value (Even on the set)
            return $this->$name;
        default:
            throw new \Exception("Property $name doesn't exist.");
            break;
    }
}

Answer 2

Update: Don't use this answer since this is very dumb code that I found while I learn. Just use plain getter and setter, it's much better.

---

I usually using that variable name as function name, and add optional parameter to that function so when that optional parameter is filled by caller, then set it to the property and return $this object (chaining) and then when that optional parameter not specified by caller, i just return the property to the caller.

My example:

class Model
{
     private $propOne;
     private $propTwo;

     public function propOne($propVal = '')
     {
          if ($propVal === '') {
              return $this->propOne;
          } else {
              $this->propOne = $propVal;
              return $this;
          }
     }

     public function propTwo($propVal = '')
     {
          if ($propVal === '') {
              return $this->propTwo;
          } else {
              $this->propTwo = $propVal;
              return $this;
          }
     }
}

Answer 3

After reading the other advices, I'm inclined to say that:

As a GENERIC rule, you will not always define setters for ALL properties, specially "internal" ones (semaphores, internal flags...). Read-only properties will not have setters, obviously, so some properties will only have getters; that's where __get() comes to shrink the code:

• define a __get() (magical global getters) for all those properties which are alike,
• group them in arrays so:
  • they'll share common characteristics: monetary values will/may come up properly formatted, dates in an specific layout (ISO, US, Intl.), etc.
  • the code itself can verify that only existing & allowed properties are being read using this magical method.
  • whenever you need to create a new similar property, just declare it and add its name to the proper array and it's done. That's way FASTER than defining a new getter, perhaps with some lines of code REPEATED again and again all over the class code.

Yes! we could write a private method to do that, also, but then again, we'll have MANY methods declared (++memory) that end up calling another, always the same, method. Why just not write a SINGLE method to rule them all...? [yep! pun absolutely intended! :)]

Magic setters can also respond ONLY to specific properties, so all date type properties can be screened against invalid values in one method alone. If date type properties were listed in an array, their setters can be defined easily. Just an example, of course. there are way too many situations.

About readability... Well... That's another debate: I don't like to be bound to the uses of an IDE (in fact, I don't use them, they tend to tell me (and force me) how to write... and I have my likes about coding "beauty"). I tend to be consistent about naming, so using ctags and a couple of other aids is sufficient to me... Anyway: once all this magic setters and getters are done, I write the other setters that are too specific or "special" to be generalized in a __set() method. And that covers all I need about getting and setting properties. Of course: there's not always a common ground, or there are such a few properties that is not worth the trouble of coding a magical method, and then there's still the old good traditional setter/getter pair.

Programming languages are just that: human artificial languages. So, each of them has its own intonation or accent, syntax and flavor, so I won't pretend to write a Ruby or Python code using the same "accent" than Java or C#, nor I would write a JavaScript or PHP to resemble Perl or SQL... Use them the way they're meant to be used.