You can't put two __construct functions with unique argument signatures in a PHP class. I'd like to do this:
class Student
{
protected $id;
protected $name;
// etc.
public function __construct($id){
$this->id = $id;
// other members are still uninitialized
}
public function __construct($row_from_database){
$this->id = $row_from_database->id;
$this->name = $row_from_database->name;
// etc.
}
}
What is the best way to do this in PHP?
You could do something like this:
public function __construct($param)
{
if(is_int($param)) {
$this->id = $param;
} elseif(is_object($param)) {
// do something else
}
}
public function __construct() {
$parameters = func_get_args();
...
}
$o = new MyClass('One', 'Two', 3);
Now $paramters will be an array with the values 'One', 'Two', 3.
Edit,
I can add that
func_num_args()
will give you the number of parameters to the function.
PHP is a dynamic language, so you can't overload methods. You have to check the types of your argument like this:
class Student
{
protected $id;
protected $name;
// etc.
public function __construct($idOrRow){
if(is_int($idOrRow))
{
$this->id = $idOrRow;
// other members are still uninitialized
}
else if(is_array($idOrRow))
{
$this->id = $idOrRow->id;
$this->name = $idOrRow->name;
// etc.
}
}
As far as I know overloading is not supported in PHP. You can only overload properties' get and set methods with overload(); (http://www.php.net/manual/en/overload.examples.basic.php)
Another option is to use default arguments in the constructor like this
class Student {
private $id;
private $name;
//...
public function __construct($id, $row=array()) {
$this->id = $id;
foreach($row as $key => $value) $this->$key = $value;
}
}
This means you'll need to instantiate with a row like this: $student = new Student($row['id'], $row) but keeps your constructor nice and clean.
On the other hand, if you want to make use of polymorphism then you can create two classes like so:
class Student {
public function __construct($row) {
foreach($row as $key => $value) $this->$key = $value;
}
}
class EmptyStudent extends Student {
public function __construct($id) {
parent::__construct(array('id' => $id));
}
}
as stated in the other comments, as php does not support overloading, usually the "type checking tricks" in constructor are avoided and the factory pattern is used intead
ie.
$myObj = MyClass::factory('fromInteger', $params);
$myObj = MyClass::factory('fromRow', $params);
I'd probably do something like this:
<?php
class Student
{
public function __construct() {
// allocate your stuff
}
public static function withID( $id ) {
$instance = new self();
$instance->loadByID( $id );
return $instance;
}
public static function withRow( array $row ) {
$instance = new self();
$instance->fill( $row );
return $instance;
}
protected function loadByID( $id ) {
// do query
$row = my_awesome_db_access_stuff( $id );
$this->fill( $row );
}
protected function fill( array $row ) {
// fill all properties from array
}
}
?>
Then if i want a Student where i know the ID:
$student = Student::withID( $id );
Or if i have an array of the db row:
$student = Student::withRow( $row );
Technically you're not building multiple constructors, just static helper methods, but you get to avoid a lot of spaghetti code in the constructor this way.
or even better you could do something like the following which is really easy and very clean
public function __construct()
{
$arguments = func_get_args();
switch(sizeof(func_get_args()))
{
case 0: break; //No arguments
case 1: $this->do_something($arguments[0]); break; //One argument
case 2: $this->do_something_else($arguments[0], $arguments[1]); break; //Two arguments
}
}