[Resolved] Showing object names

Spames

If I dynamicly create objects, do I need to store the dynamicly created names in an array at the time the object is created? Or is there some php function that knows what the names of the objects are?

var_dump($object_variable)
just shows:

object(class_name)(number of attributes)

Weedpacket

What do you mean "the name of the object"? Its class? [man]get_class[/man] will return that.

Spames

If I create objects based on data that comes out of my database:

$data_fromdb = new Object;
$data_fromdb = new Object;
$data_fromdb = new Object;

data_fromdb is any number from 1-500+ with an "a_" before it. We'll say that in the 3 above, the database query resulted in the following 3 objects being created:

$a_5 = new Object
$a_99 = new Object
$a_33 = new Object

Can I get the names of the objects -- a list would be nice, like a_5, a_99, a_33? Or do I need to store a_5, a_99, and a_33 in an array at the time I created the new objects?

Maybe I'm just asking another stupid question.....:rolleyes: 😃

Spames

anybody know?

ahundiak

There is no accessible master list of objects so you will need to maintain your own list. One possibility is to have a common base class whose constructor automatically adds each object to a master list.

Spames

Well, I didn't want to ask, but I couldn't find a good example of this...

Is something like this what you are takling about?

class Container
{
var $names = array();
function AddContainer($new_objname)
{
array_push($names, $new_objname);
}
}

class Data extends Container
{
ALL SPECIFIC FUNCTIONS GO HERE
}

To use this:

when I start a new set of objects:

$set = new Container;

For all the objects, I would Do the query that gets the data for the new object and create the new Data object:

$new_dataname = 'a_7' -- a_7 would come from the database
$new_dataname = new Data;
$new_dataname->AddContainer($new_dataname);

The above would create 3-10 objects, and push the name of the object into the $names array above.

Then, to see the list of object names:

foreach($set->names[] as $temp)
{
echo $temp;
}

Is that "proper"?

ahundiak

That should work but you need to declare $names as static.

It's not a really good design because Data Is Not A Container and therefore Data should not extend Container.

In my original post I assumed that you wanted to be able to store different types of object in the list.

Try something like this

class CItems
{
  val $items = Array();

  function addItem(&$item)
  {
    $items[] =& $item;  /* Stores a reference to the complete object */
  }
}

class CData 
{
  function CData()
  {
    global $items;
    $items->addItem($this); /* Register itself */
  }
  function getName() {} /* Return the object name */
}

/* Create object for holding other objects */
$items =& new CItems;

/* Create the data objects */
$data1 =& new CData();
$data2 =& new CData();

/* Cycle through the list and get your objects back */
foreach($items->items as $item)
{
  echo $item->getName();
}

I know this is not quite what you asked for but I really don't see the point of trying to dynamically name your object variables.

Spames

I was trying to dynamicly name the objects, because there will be a varying number of objects to be created.

When I wanted to put data back in the database, the name of the object would have an identifier for the database as part of the object's name.

Maybe I'm making this too difficult for myself... maybe I should only be creating one object?

Thanks for your time in making the sample. I'll have to play around with that to make sure I understand how to retrieve my objects.

THANKS!

Spames

Alright, I get it now --

😃 Thanks-