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How do I access a PHP object attribute having a dollar sign ?

Answer 1

+6 A:

$myVar = 'variable$WithDollar';
echo $object->$myVar;

With curly brackets:
```
echo $object->{'variable$WithDollar'};
```

nickf 2010-01-19 11:48:16

you mean, with string variables?

Luca Matteis 2010-01-19 11:48:57

No, variable variables is the correct term. But $ is illegal in variable names ...

Jan Hančič 2010-01-19 11:49:46

@Jan, that doesn't change the fact that you can get a variable or a property with a $ in the name...

nickf 2010-01-19 11:52:29

Oh, that seems to work ! Is there any way not to use a second variable ($myVar) ? something like : echo $object->'variable$WithDollar';)

kevin 2010-01-19 11:58:49

@Kevin: I pointed out how to do that in my answer. But what are you trying to achieve in the first place? A mySQL result set with a $ in the field name is odd to say the least.

Pekka 2010-01-19 12:03:36

@Pekka : It's not a MySQL result, a database adapter builds the results of a SQL query into an array of objects. The table I'm querying has a weird schema and some columns have dollar signs in their name.

kevin 2010-01-19 13:15:41

@kevin: I see. Well, both nickf's, mstiles's and my approach work for that - pick your choice.

Pekka 2010-01-19 13:24:55

Answer 2

+2 A:

I assume you want to access properties with variable names on the fly. For that, try

echo $object->{"variable".$yourVariable}

Pekka 2010-01-19 11:48:44

I'm not creating them, they are the results of an SQL query. That's not what I'm trying to do.

kevin 2010-01-19 11:50:33

You can so. Try this: `$x = 'a$b'; $$x = 'foo'; print_r(get_defined_vars());`

nickf 2010-01-19 11:51:35

@nickf: Good point, removed.

Pekka 2010-01-19 12:02:03

Answer 3

+1 A:

There are reflection methods that also allow you to construct method and attribute names that may be built by variables or contain special characters. You can use the ReflectionClass::getProperty ( string $name ) method.

$object->getProperty('variable$WithDollar');

mstiles 2010-01-19 12:23:03

you'd have to use single quotes there.

nickf 2010-01-19 12:40:21

Answer 4

+2 A:

You don't.

The dollar sign has a special significance in PHP. Although it is possible to bypass the variable substitution in dereferencing class/object properties you NEVER should be doing this.

Don't try to declare variables with a literal '$'.

If you're having to deal with someoneelse's mess - first fix the code they wrote to remove the dollars then go and chop off their fingers.

C.

symcbean 2010-01-19 13:35:10

Some of the software that primarly runs the database is 20 years old. Believe me I would love to just have readable columns names (and not AF$AT1 for example), I'm communicating with the database and can't change anything on it !

kevin 2010-01-19 13:45:51

Answer 5

+3 A:

Thanks to your answers, I just found out how I can do that the way I intended :

echo $object->{'variable$WithDollar'}; // works !

I was pretty sure I tried every combination possible before.

kevin 2010-01-19 13:58:06

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How do I access a PHP object attribute having a dollar sign ?

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