Java-like Collections in PHP

Question

I\'m learning PHP5 (last time I checked PHP was in PHP4 days) and I\'m glad to see that PHP5 OO is more Java-alike than the PHP4 one but there\'s still an issue that makes m

Answer 1

Yii has implementation of full java like collections stack

http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/api/1.1/CList

Answer 2

A nice implementation of collection in php is provided by Varien Lib, this library is part of Magento code with OSL license. ( more info about Magento license and code reuse here.

Cannot find any source code for the library so the best way is to download magento and then look in /lib/Varien/

Answer 3

PHP arrays are associative... They're far more powerful than Java's arrays, and include much of the functionality of List<> and Map<>.

What do you mean by "good idea"? They're different tools, using one language in the way you used another usually results in frustration.

Answer 4

I am very pro collection objects in PHP, they can be used to add type safety, impliment easy to use search, sort and manipulation functionality, and represent the correct OO approach rather then using arrays and the multitude of useful but procedual functions that operate on them in differing patterns all over the source.

We have various collections that we use for various purposes all neatly inherited promoting type safety, consistent coding standards and a high level of code reuse.

But ultimatley, they are all array's internally!

I suppose really it comes down to choice, but in my object oriented world I like to keep easily repeatable segments of code such as sort and search algorithms in base classes, and I find the object notation more self documenting.

Answer 5

I sometimes use this really simple implementation to give me a rough and ready collection.

Normally the main requirement of a collection is enforcing a group of one type of object, you just have to setup a basic class with a constructor to implement it.

class SomeObjectCollection {

   /**
    * @var SomeObject[]
    */
   private $collection = array();

   /** 
    * @param SomeObject $object1
    * @param SomeObject $_ [optional]
    */
   function __construct(SomeObject $object1 = null, SomeObject $_ = null) 
   {
       foreach (func_get_args() as $index => $arg) {
           if(! $arg instanceof SomeObject) throw new \RuntimeException('All arguments must be of type SomeObject');
           $this->collection[] = $arg;
       }
   }

   /**
    * @return SomeObject[]
    */
   public function getAll()
   {
       return $this->collection;
   }
}

Answer 6

I, too, was somewhat dismayed to find no Collection type classes in PHP. Arrays have a couple of real disadvantages in my experience.

First, the number of functions available to manipulate them is somewhat limited. For example, I need to be able to arbitrarily insert and remove items to/from a Collection at a given index position. Doing that with the built-in language functions for arrays in PHP is painful at best.

Second, as a sort of offshoot of the first point, writing clean, readable code that manipulates arrays at any level of complexity beyond simple push/pop and iterator stuff is difficult at best. I often find that I have to use one array to index and keep track of another array in data-intensive apps I create.

I prefer working in a framework (my personal choice is NOLOH). There, I have a real Collection class called ArrayList that has functions such as Add, Insert, RemoveAt, RemoveRange and Toggle. I imagine other PHP frameworks address this issue as well.