An Array Of Php Objects

markyoung1984

I need to declare several instances of an object and the easiest way to do this would be in an array, however, I do not know the syntax in PHP. In C++ it would be objectName arrayName[45]; assuming i wanted to declare 45 instances of my object. There must be a way to do this in PHP but I just can't find it. Please help!!!!!

Regards,
Mark

Installer

Start with some test code and see what happens. For instance:

class Test
{
    function Test($index)
    {
        echo 'array_of_objects[' . $index . ']' . '<br />';
    }
}

for ($i = 0; $i < 45; $i++) {
    $obj_arr[] = new Test($i);
}

Jasp182

an array in PHP is a dynamically sized list (it's more like a flexible hybrid collection than the type of array you're used to). You don't need to explicitly declare the size of an array in php nor do you need to declare the underlying type. At any point you can push any object or value onto the end of an array either with an integer or string key or no key at all (all three cases will give you an internal numeric pointer).

$array[] = $object;
$array['key'] = $object;
$array[$counter] = $object;

any of these will work

Jasp182

oh yeah...as of php5, you have to at the very least initialize the array with

$array = array();

$array = array("key1"=>"value1","key2"=>"value2");

then you can do as you please with it.

Installer

oh yeah...as of php5...

...you have to at the very least initialize the array with

$array = array();

or

$array = array("key1"=>"value1","key2"=>"value2");

There's this (from the manual):

$arr[key] = value;
$arr[] = value;
// key may be an integer or string
// value may be any value

If $arr doesn't exist yet, it will be created. So this is also an alternative way to specify an array.

Jasp182

Installer wrote:
????

There's this (from the manual):

In PHP 4.3, I was able to use uninitialized arrays. When I upgraded to v5, PHP would complain when I would treat a variable as an array (attempting to push a value onto the variable with array syntax) without first declaring the variable as an array explicitly.

Not sure what the manual says...that was just my experience.

Installer

Well, I'm pretty sure what the manual says (having quoted it above). Can you post some of the code that caused PHP to complain?

Weedpacket

<?php

$array[] = "foo!";

?>

Works for me in 5.1.2 without a complaint - not even a notice level message.

$array = null;
$array[] = "foo!";

That works, too.

$array = 12;
$array[] = "foo!";

Now I can get it to complain: "Cannot use a scalar value as an array".

Jasp182

Yeah...apparently I'm wrong. I ran some tests of my own and am no longer able to duplicate this, but I remember when we first upgraded from 4.3 to 5.0, I had some kind of problem with undeclared arrays. [shrug]

Installer

That could be what was happening...but I don't know. It also complains in ver.<5 ("Warning"). Maybe the error-reporting settings were changed in the upgrade.

Jasp182

Installer wrote:
That could be what was happening...but I don't know. It also complains in ver.<5 ("Warning"). Maybe the error-reporting settings were changed in the upgrade.

There's a good chance that was it...we were still working in the dev environment when we upgraded to 5, so we were probably displaying all errors and warnings at the time.

Weedpacket

Even with E_ALL | E_STRICT set (the highest possible leve), 5.1.2 at least still doesn't complain.

Installer

Even with E_ALL | E_STRICT set (the highest possible leve), 5.1.2 at least still doesn't complain

You don't mean for this code (the code I was referring to, unclearly I realize now), do you?

$array = 12; 
$array[] = "foo!";

Because every version I try it on raises a warning.

The other code you posted causes no problem, of course.