ID: 49526 Comment by: president at basnetworks dot net Reported By: president at basnetworks dot net Status: Open Bug Type: Feature/Change Request PHP Version: 6SVN-2009-09-11 (SVN) New Comment:
Hi Kalle, Thanks for the information. I will follow your instructions and start working on the RFC over the next week(s). Also, thanks for the link about the Developer Summit, but it does not show the outcome of the discussion, am I able to find that anywhere? Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2009-09-12 12:22:19] ka...@php.net Hey The best way to request this feature is to write an RFC in our wiki at: http://wiki.php.net/rfc/ Request an account at: http://wiki.php.net/start?do=register And then send an email to the webmaster list (php-webmas...@lists.php.net) requesting write access to the rfc namespace and repost this feature request as an RFC. When you are done, start a new thread on internals (intern...@lists.php.net) explaining your RFC. As for reference, this idea was discussed at the last PDM in May, see: http://wiki.php.net/summits/pdmnotesmay09#php_6 point #16 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2009-09-11 01:02:26] president at basnetworks dot net Description: ------------ I would like to request a C# style get/set syntax (called a property in C#) for PHP. Basically, it looks and acts like a class member/variable from outside the class, but it is actually a set of two methods. It can be used to provide only read or write access to a class member, do pre or post processing on a member, or be completely dynamic like a set of class methods. A property contains two methods between braces, named get and set. get must always have a return statement, while set has a magic variable "value" or "$value" which is the variable that was passed to the property. Either method can be omitted to make the property read-only or write-only. The same effect can be achieved by creating a GetVar() and SetVar() method to create a sudo-property "var", although it is by far much clumsier and less intuitive. I also realize the same effect received outside the class can be achieved using the __get() and __set() methods, but these methods are only really useful in a small instance of situations, like giving access to an internal array as though each index is a property. These magic methods are not at all useful for using on an individual property basis, and it gets worse when inheritance is introduced. The C# syntax is as follows: class TimePeriod { private double seconds; public double Hours { get { return seconds / 3600; } set { seconds = value * 3600; } } } The PHP syntax would be similar to the following: class TimePeriod { private $seconds; public property Hours { get { return $this->seconds / 3600; } set { $this->seconds = $value * 3600; } } } You would use it exactly the same as a public class member: $time = new TimePeriod(); $time->Hours = 24; echo $time->Hours; As opposed to the alternative: $time = new TimePeriod(); $time->SetHours(24); echo $time->GetHours(); Additionally, the get and set methods can have separate visibilities like in the following example where get is public and set is protected: public property Name { get { return $this->name; } protected set { $this->name = $value; } } There is another ticket that is similar but not the same thing here: http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=34194 It suggests separate getter/setter methods, which in my opinion are much less intuitive. I believe that following the C# format would help to keep a standard format, and would be the least confusing. The poster of that bug also fails to realize that separate visibility levels can be achieved for properties using the C# syntax, as shown above. The C# documentation on properties is available here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/x9fsa0sw%28VS.80%29.aspx The C# documentation on Asymmetric Accessor Accessibility for properties is available here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/75e8y5dd%28VS.80%29.aspx ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at http://bugs.php.net/?id=49526&edit=1
