Handeling data from a class/object

[knowj]

One thing that has been plaguing me for a while is how to handle data within classes and the best way of passing it out of an object into a template or view (of sorts). Having each object variable as private prevents it being manipulated outside of the class/object but at the same time prevents access.

The simplest option in my opinion would be to move the object variables you need to access to an array and return the array to be looped out within the template/view however this seems to go against the idea of OOP.

Just looking for opinions.

thanks in advance.

class names
{
    private $id;
    private $firstName;
    private $lastName;

   private $db;

   public function __construct()
   {
        $this->db = database::getInstance();
   }

   public function get($firstName)
   {
        //get data via mysqli prepared statment
        $stmt->bind_result($this->firstName, $this->lastName);

    while ($stmt->fetch()
    {
           //best practice of getting data from $this->* to outside the object into template/view
    }
   }
}

[NogDog]

I'd probably set the private properties from the DB via a separate method, possibly the constructor. Then I would either define a "getter" method to get those which the client code might need, or use the "magic" __get() method.

<?php
class Names
{
   private $id;
   private $firstName;
   private $lastName;
   private $db;

   public function __construct($id)
   {
      $this->id = (int)$id;
      $this->db = database::getInstance();
      $this->populate();
   }

   public function __get($var)
   {
      if(isset($this->$var))
      {
         return $this->$var;
      }
      throw new Exception("Unknown property '$var'.");
   }

   private function populate()
   {
      // do stuff with $this->db and $this->id to populate names
   }
}

[knowj]

Thanks nogdog.

Quick few questions. Wouldn't the __get "magic" method technically give access to the $this->db object from outside of the containing class?

Also if the classes job was to do more than just access that data. For instance get a single persons name based on id, get everyone with a certain last name, add new names to the database, edit someones name, remove names from the system. Or would it be better to separate these down into a few classes based on their functionality?

The above is just pure example it's just the concepts, structure and way I work that I am reviewing. I just can't seems to find any good resources on practices unless I started to look into java or C++ and apply the same logic to PHP.

[Weedpacket]

knowj wrote:

Wouldn't the __get "magic" method technically give access to the $this->db object from outside of the containing class?

The one he wrote would, yes; but you can write the method to do something different.

[NogDog]

Yep...you can add logic to it to only return certain properties (e.g. with an array of property names, perhaps?). Or you could just create a specific getProperty() method if you prefer for each private/protected property which you want client code to be able to read.