when using doctrine i stumble upon these 2 words: accessor and mutator.
are these only used in doctrine or are they specific for php?
and what do they mean?
thanks
+7
A:
They're just fancy terms for getters and setters.
class MyClass
{
private $prop;
// Accessor (or Getter)
public function getProp()
{
return $this->prop;
}
// Mutator (or Setter)
public function setProp($value)
{
$this->prop = $value;
}
}
webbiedave
2010-05-04 06:05:24
And to clarify, they're common terms used in Object Oriented programming, no matter the language or framework.
nickf
2010-05-04 06:07:23
so why do they call them accessors and mutators instead of getters and setters? they aren't magic methods, that is to say, they if i type setProp() but haven't defined one method for that, it won't be created automatically?
never_had_a_name
2010-05-04 06:14:09
@fayer accessor and mutator are more general terms used in computer science. getter and setter are more casual way I guess... maybe a slang. As long as I know, it won't magically create the variables for you in php... need to look the specifications... pretty sure it won't.
m0s
2010-05-04 06:24:43
+1
A:
If I understand you correctly these 2 are specific to I guess any object oriented programming language. The point is that accessor is a method or a function which provides access to private fields in your class and mutator method allows to modify the private fields. I can go on writing about this, but I suggest you just google these, and you'll get lots of information about it. Its all about encapsulation <- suggest you to look up that term as well.
m0s
2010-05-04 06:07:41
I like to think of them as regular functions that just serve some common well known purpose... nothing more.
m0s
2010-05-04 06:30:51