PHP array to class collection

Question

I am new at PHP reflection so have an issue to create object from dump data.

class Car{
    public $id;
    public $name;
}

Car is my class. I can get class properties and values like this:

$audi = new Car();

$reflector = new ReflectionClass($audi);

var_dump($reflector->getDefaultProperties());

But I want to create instances of Car from array that comes from database.

$objects =array("id"=>"1", "name"=>"A3");

function createInstance($objects){
    ????
}

will be matched array key to class property.

Answer 1

As mentioned by Marc B, you can simply iterate the array to set the objects properties dynamically:

class Car{
    public $id;
    public $name;
}

function createInstanceOfCar($objects){
    $car = new Car();
    foreach ($objects as $key => $value) 
        $car->{$key} = $value;
    return $car;
}

$objects =array("id"=>"1", "name"=>"A3");
$car1 = createInstanceOfCar($objects);
var_dump($car1);

It would probably be better however to have this functionality within the class its self, rather than an external function:

class CarAlternative{
    public $id;
    public $name;
    function __construct(array $props){
        foreach ($props as $key => $value)
            $this->{$key} = $value;
    }
}

$car2 = new CarAlternative($objects);
var_dump($car2);

One final note, php allows you to set undefined properties on an object, so if you where to modify the $objects array to $objects =array("id"=>"1", "name"=>"A3", "wtf"=>"xxx"); then the above two objects would also contain a wtf property.

To limit a class to defined properties, you can use the magic method __set : http://php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.overloading.php#object.set

class CarStricter{
    public $id;
    public $name;
    function __construct(array $props){
        foreach ($props as $key => $value)
            $this->{$key} = $value;
    }
    function __set($prop, $val){
        //ignore undefined properties
    }
}

The __set method is called when an undefined property is set. As we do nothing in the method, we override the default behaviour

Live example: http://codepad.viper-7.com/XB86Qn