Overloading Classes in PHP 5 - More about members overloading: triggering automatically the “__get()” method

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As I stated before, triggering the “__get()” method behind the scenes via the overloading of a member access is actually a straightforward process. To demonstrate how this can be done, I’ll use the “DataSaver” class that you saw before, but this time I’ll replace its “__set()” method with a “__get()” method.

Keeping in mind this small method replacement, the new definition of the “DataSaver” class is as follows:

class DataSaver{
    private $data=array('Element1'=>1,'Element2'=>2,'Element3'=>3);
    private $dataFile='default_data_file.txt';
    // overload __get() method
    public function __get($index){
        echo 'Retrieving element of $data property with
index='.$index;
        if(!$this->data[$index]){
            throw new Exception('The referenced element is not
valid');
        }
        return $this->data[$index];
    }
    // save data to file
    public function save(){
        if(!$fp=fopen($this->dataFile,'a+')){
            throw new Exception('Error opening data file');
        }
        fwrite($fp,serialize($this->data));
        fclose($fp);
    }
    // fetch data from file
    public function open(){
        if(!$contents=file_get_contents($this->dataFile)){
            throw new Exception('Error reading from data file');
        }
        return unserialize($contents);
    }
}

As you’ll certainly agree, the above class isn’t rocket science at all. In simple terms, all that I did was replace the previous “__set()” method with a concrete definition of the new “__get()” method. Closely similar to the example you learned in the previous section, this method can be automatically called by coding the following script:

// example of __get() overloading
try{
    // instantiate 'DataSaver' object
    $dataSaver=new DataSaver();
    // change value of one element of $data property (calls the
__get() method)
    echo 'The value of the following element property is
'.$dataSaver->Element1;
}
catch(Exception $e){
    echo $e->getMessage();
    exit();
}

In this specific case, the respective “__get()” method is automatically triggered when a class member access is overloaded by the line below:

echo 'The value of the following element property is
'.$dataSaver->Element1;

Of course, after running the code contained inside the “__get()” method, this is the output that I get on my browser:

Retrieving element of $data property with index=Element1
The value of the following property is 1

As you can see, the “__get()” method has been automatically called by simply overloading a class member access. Wasn’t that easy? You bet.

Now that you learned how to trigger the corresponding “__set()” and “__get()” methods individually, the next step consists of demonstrating how these two methods can be integrated in the same class and called appropriately when overloading a couple of property accesses.

To learn more on how this will be achieved, please go ahead and read the next section. 

Next: Overloading multiple member accesses: combining the “__set()” and “__get()” method in the same class >>
 

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