I’ve been a big of a laggard when it comes around to the latest and greatest in the world of PHP. Only recently have I been using the new functionality of PHP 5.3 even though 5.4 just came out. Today I had an idea for a proof of concept and I thought I’d share it with you today.
PHP Example
<span class="token keyword">class</span> <span class="token class-name-definition class-name">Model</span> <span class="token punctuation">{</span>
<span class="token keyword">public</span> <span class="token keyword">function</span> <span class="token function-definition function">__call</span><span class="token punctuation">(</span><span class="token variable">$name</span><span class="token punctuation">,</span> <span class="token variable">$args</span><span class="token punctuation">)</span> <span class="token punctuation">{</span>
<span class="token keyword">if</span> <span class="token punctuation">(</span><span class="token function">is_callable</span><span class="token punctuation">(</span><span class="token variable">$this</span><span class="token operator">-></span><span class="token variable">$name</span><span class="token punctuation">)</span><span class="token punctuation">)</span> <span class="token punctuation">{</span>
<span class="token keyword">return</span> <span class="token function">call_user_func_array</span><span class="token punctuation">(</span><span class="token variable">$this</span><span class="token operator">-></span><span class="token variable">$name</span><span class="token punctuation">,</span> <span class="token variable">$args</span><span class="token punctuation">)</span><span class="token punctuation">;</span>
<span class="token punctuation">}</span>
<span class="token punctuation">}</span>
<span class="token punctuation">}</span>
<span class="token variable">$m</span> <span class="token operator">=</span> <span class="token keyword">new</span> <span class="token class-name">Model</span><span class="token punctuation">(</span><span class="token punctuation">)</span><span class="token punctuation">;</span>
<span class="token variable">$m</span><span class="token operator">-></span><span class="token property">hello</span> <span class="token operator">=</span> <span class="token keyword">function</span> <span class="token punctuation">(</span><span class="token variable">$name</span><span class="token punctuation">)</span> <span class="token punctuation">{</span>
<span class="token keyword">echo</span> <span class="token string double-quoted-string">"Hello, <span class="token interpolation"><span class="token punctuation">{</span><span class="token variable">$name</span><span class="token punctuation">}</span></span>"</span><span class="token punctuation">;</span>
<span class="token punctuation">}</span><span class="token punctuation">;</span>
<span class="token variable">$m</span><span class="token operator">-></span><span class="token function">hello</span><span class="token punctuation">(</span><span class="token string single-quoted-string">'Andrew'</span><span class="token punctuation">)</span><span class="token punctuation">;</span>What this example does is allow me to assign an anonymous function to any public parameter on my object. Then the __call magic method checks to see if that parameter is callable and if so calls it. I could see all sorts of interesting ways of leveraging this functionality. We could create special ways to allow for input and output filters on every one of these parameter functions pretty easily.
Anyway, I thought it was a neat idea.