How to I return different type with __toString() method?

Question

We use __toString() to returning class's default value like that:

<?php

class my
{
   public function __toString()
   {
      return "asdasd";
   }
}

?>

It returns only string type. But I want to return resource type:

<?php

class my
{
   public function __toString()
   {
      return imagecreatefromjpeg("image.jpg");
   }
}

?>

It doesn't work.How to do it?Is there any method instead of __toString() or any way with using __toString?

Answer 1

Suggest you write your own method __toResource() or similar. Trying to do this using __toString() would be wrong, as your not returning a String - you might confuse future developers or even yourself a year or so down the line.

Edit

In answer to your comment, like this?

// Use one _ as suggested by Artefacto
public function _toResource()
{
    // Return the resource object
    return imagecreatefromjpeg("image.jpg");
}

public function __toString()
{
   // Return the filename as a string
   return "image.jpg";
}

Answer 2

It's not possible. As the name says, __toString should return a string.

Not even something that is convertible to a string is allowed:

class my
{
   public function __toString()
   {
      return 6;
   }
}

//Catchable fatal error: Method my::__toString() must return a string value    
echo(new my());

If you are trying to have the contents of the image back when do do e.g. echo(new my), you can do:

class my
{
   public function __toString()
   {
      return (string) file_get_contents("myimage.jpeg");
   }
}