PHP-DI - Differences between Factories and Objects

Question

PHP-DI allows some methods to define injections, including factories and objects: http://php-di.org/doc/php-definitions.html .

Factories :

TestClass::class => function () {
   return new TestClass('param');
}

The TestClass instance is created lazily, only when it is needed.

Objects :

TestClass::class => DI\object()->constructor('param')

If you use Objects, is the instance also created lazily?

If yes, what's the difference between factories and objects?

Answer 1

PHP-DI author here, it seems there is some confusion (given the question and how wrong the other answer is). I have improved the documentation, hopefully that will clear things up: ec8120ee .

To answer your questions:

If you use Objects, is the instance also created lazily?

Yes , all definitions are resolved lazily, object() too.

If yes, what's the difference between factories and objects?

Just the syntax. In some cases it's more practical to write a closure, in some other cases you may want to avoid the boilerplate by using object() .

It's just a syntax preference honestly.