Redeclaring $this - possible?

[jezze]

Hi!

I have a class:

class MyClass {

public $name;

function load($id) {

$query = mysql_query("SELECT name FROM myTable WHERE id = $id");
$result = mysql_fetch_object($query, "MyClass");

/* PROBLEM HERE BELOW */
$this = $result;

}

}

$a = new MyClass();
$a->load(1);

Is there someway smart I can actually make this work because I do not want to set name with something like $this->name = $result->name since $result is already of the same class as $this. I just want to overwrite $this with my new object $result.

This might be a hard one to crack. Any suggestions are welcome!

[laserlight]

Is there someway smart I can actually make this work because I do not want to set name with something like $this->name = $result->name since $result is already of the same class as $this. I just want to overwrite $this with my new object $result.

As far as I know, you cannot assign to $this. Just write a member function that can set all of the object's members at once.

[ahundiak]

You could just return $result and do:
$a = $a->load(1);

But thats kind of screwy. Better to just have $result be an array then set the $name variable inside of the load method.

[jezze]

I solved it with this but it is not as nice...

foreach(get_object_vars($result) as $var => $value) $this->$var = $value;

[ahundiak]

If you are going to do that then don't bother using mysql_fetch_object, use mysql_fetch_assoc and then just foreach over the result.

[greenie2600]

See the very last comment on this page, from jbeall.

Apparently, you could reassign $this from within an object in PHP4, but you can't in PHP5.

However, this technique sounds like some serious code smell. Scratch that...code reek 🙂

You could rewrite your class as a Factory object, whose sole purpose in life is to generate MySQL record objects, but that'd be slightly ridiculous for something as simple as this.

I'd suggest that dealing with your data directly as MySQL record objects is a bad idea, anyway. It makes it impossible to extend the class with methods to update or delete the record, insert new records, and perform any other kind of processing. It becomes solely a read-only struct.

Your solution with foreach() is probably the best one. This will give you room to expand the functionality of the class later, instead of limiting you into the built-in functionality of a MySQL record object.