First, apologies if this has been discussed before. I couldn't find
any evidence to suggest that it has, but it kind of surprises me.
As strings aren't objects in PHP, __toString is quite a useful
construct, but it begs the question as to why there aren't
__to<primitve-type> for each of the primitive types in PHP? Through
SPL, we have __toArray covered, and I presume that there is no real
value in a __toInteger or __toFloat, but __toBoolean seems as it could
be quite useful, since it would allow an object to be evaluated in a
conditional. Eg. a simple use-case:
class Validation {
protected $errors = array();
function fail($error) {
$this->errors[] = $error;
}
function __toBoolean() {
return count($this->errors) === 0;
}
}
I wonder if the reason why this haven't been suggest yet is because of:
a) Nobody thought about it before
b) Somebody thought about it, and figured out that it was a bad idea
While this looks pretty simple, I have a hunch that introducing such
behaviour could have far-fetching consequences, as it hooks into PHP's
dynamic typing system. It also have a smell of C++'s ability to
overload operators and the ensuing shooting of feet. On the other
hand, it does allow some nifty tricks, and as it's optional,
presumably people would only use it when it actually makes sense.
Even if this, for some reason, doesn't fit into core PHP, it might be
a candidate for SPL? (Even if the syntax would then be slightly
different)
Have a nice weekend.
--
troels
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