missing an Enum class about ardent HOT 9 CLOSED

I agree that PHP needs an enumeration type. However, I feel like if that comes from anywhere besides the PHP core that it's a kludge and hack.

That being said, I'll at least consider this idea and play around with it a bit.

from ardent.

I totally agree with you. But as long as PHP doesn't have that implemented in core it's better to have it within a more used and general library.

from ardent.

You have been playing with this for 2 months ... any updated :)

from ardent.

I did do a bit of playing around with it. In short, I don't feel like any of the options really help. PHP needs enums in the core and I don't think trying to emulate them will be helpful.

I'm still open to suggestions though.

from ardent.

Enumerations requirements:

• Must be able to be serialized consistently
• Must be able to be used in type-hints
• Must be able to be auto-loaded

Considerations:

• Can it be used in instanceof?
• Support casts to number?

from ardent.

Oops, wrong button. Meant comment, not close.

from ardent.

@morrisonlevi

Must be able to be serialized consistently

Should be possible because constants accepting scalar values only - also it is possible to add the serializable interface

Must be able to be used in type-hints

It's implemented as a class which needs to be instantiated - so the name of the class is the type-hint

Must be able to be auto-loaded

Same as above - it's a class name classes will be autoloadable

Can it be used in instanceof?

Same as above - it's an instance of a class and $enumObject instanceof EnumClass works fine

Support casts to number?

This isn't possible as is
Only with a workaround it could be done:

• Only allow numbers as values - throw an exception if this isn't the case
• cast the object to a string returning the current number as a string and than case the string into a number
• $value = (int) (string) $enumObject;
• But this isn't nice

The above liked implementation allows all scalar types and returns the current const name on casting to a string.
Casting to the current value needs to be done using the __invoke magic method = calling the enum object like a function.

from ardent.

After more consideration I still think this is really something that needs to be in PHP core and that a user-land implementation isn't useful enough.

from ardent.

I agree ... Enums are only useful as part of the language. In any case, you can "fake" enums perfectly well right now with class constants.

from ardent.