Foreach loop which results in object instantiation....

Question

Hi,

I have a requirement to accept an array of checked items from a table and update a field based on which items have been selected. Initially my thoughts where to simply loop over each of these items in the array and access a function in the specific class to update the status.

I'm slightly concerned about this approach as it would mean instantiating an object for each iteration of the loop in order to update the relevant status.

foreach($example as $exampleId){
    $newExample=new Example($exampleId);
    $newExample->updateStatus('active');
}

Are there any better ways around this? This seems like bad practice but I'm struggling to find an alternative way.

Answer 1

is this an option?

$newExample=new Example();
foreach($example as $exampleId){
    $newExample->updateStatus($exampleId,'active');
}

otherwise you could always do this:

foreach($example as $exampleId){
    $newExample=new Example($exampleId);
    $newExample->updateStatus('active');
    $newExample->__destruct(); 
    unset($newExample);
}

for this you would need anothe method in your class

$newExample=new Example();
foreach($example as $exampleId){
    $newExample->set_example_id($exampleId);
    $newExample->updateStatus('active');
}

Answer 2

It sounds like creating your object has overhead because it is loading from a database or somewhere? Could you add a static method to Example which updates without having to create an object which loads and populates itself? Then you could do:

foreach($example as $exampleId){
    Example::UpdateExampleStatus($exampleId,'active');
}