How to define a class in php that accepts unlimited properties directly-CodePudding

in Laravel model, for instance, a class User can be initialized and properties set like below

$u =  new User;
$u->name='Name';

But if I create a class in PHP like below

class X {}

$x = new X;

if I try to set other properties like below

$x->name='name';

I will receive an error telling me that the property name is not defined in class X

My question is how is it done? so that I can create a class and then be able to add properties as whenever the class is initialized even if the property does not already exist in the class

CodePudding user response：

You can use magic getters & setters from PHP, methods __get() and __set().

class X {
  public function __set($name, $value) {
    $this->$name = $value;
  }
  public function __get($name) {
    return $this->$name;
  }
}

$x = new X();
$x->name = "Guille";
echo $x->name; // Prints Guille

Also remember that dynamic properties are deprecaded on PHP 8.2.

To allow dynamic properties on PHP 8.2 use:

#[AllowDynamicProperties]
class X {
  // ...
}

CodePudding user response：

If you want an "unlimited" property class, even without defining a class and the contents, then just use new \stdClass():

class A
{
   public $property1;
   public $property2;
   //...
}

// VS

$class = new \stdClass();

$class->property1 = 'abc';
$class->property1000000 = true;
$class->propertyABC = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];

But I think you don't want anything like this, you should AVOID using stdClass and classes that magically set stuff using __get and __set, because you MUST know by memory, what it has. It is considered a very BAD practice...

I am not sure why you need to dynamically set stuff, but maybe a Collection or an array will solve your issue.