Php interface

Question

I'm sure some time ago I read a new PHP function, which was either a new magic method or a new interface so you can implement Arrayable methods.

eg,

interface Arrayable { public function toArray(); } 

Can I imagine it?

Answer 1

Can I imagine it?

Yes.

• There is no interface in PHP (PHP 5.4 or otherwise) for processing casting into an array.

• PHP 5.4.0 introduces the JsonSerializable interface, maybe you think about it?

• There is also an RFC project (one of several related) that offers the __toArray() method; see Request for comments: magic methods of the castable type

Answer 2

This is not in PHP itself, but Laravel has an interface designed for this purpose:

 <?php namespace Illuminate\Contracts\Support; interface Arrayable { /** * Get the instance as an array. * * @return array */ public function toArray(); } 

Note: In Laravel v4, the namespace was Illuminate\Support\Contracts , and the interface name was ArrayableInterface .

Answer 3

Here it is (which is pretty useless IMO) http://php.net/manual/en/class.traversable.php

and also this (which comes in handy, but always requires a type check before using it)

http://php.net/manual/en/function.iterator-to-array.php

But it is not possible to handle indirect array conversion implicitly.

Answer 4

You are probably thinking of an iterator interface. If you create a class that implements this, you can iterate over it as if it were an array. For example, you can use it in a foreach () loop.

Also check out another predefined interface .

You can always write your own custom interface, and then you can enter a hint for it or test it with instanceof (see example # 4), as you indicated what you want to do in comment .