classes assigning variables automatically

Question

I'm making a class and I want to be able to automatically assign variables being posted from an ajax request.

function assign_vars() {
    foreach($_POST as $index => $value) {
        if($index == 'car_year') {
            $this->car_year = $value;
        }
    }
}

This function would be very handy is their a cleaner way of doing this.

Populating an object using `$_POST`?! – BoltClock Oct 30 '11 at 19:44 — BoltClock, Oct 30 '11 at 19:44
How else would I populate an object? – killkrazy Oct 30 '11 at 19:51 — killkrazy, Oct 30 '11 at 19:51
Oh, I didn't see the Ajax bit earlier. My bad :) – BoltClock Oct 30 '11 at 19:52 — BoltClock, Oct 30 '11 at 19:52
Related: http://stackoverflow.com/q/7285971/212218 – Aug 02 '12 at 18:17 — , Aug 02 '12 at 18:17

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 30 '11 at 20:12

Consider the following setup:

class ClassName
{
  /* Init with default values. */
  protected $_vars = array(
      'car_year' => null
    , ...
  );

  public function assign_vars( $array )
  {
    $this->_vars =
      array_merge($this->_vars, array_intersect_key($array, $this->_vars));
  }
}

$obj = new ClassName();
$obj->assign_vars($_POST);

In assign_vars(), array_merge() will overwrite values in $_vars, but only if they are already present (thanks to array_intersect_key()).

Yes that probably is a better option actually. – killkrazy Oct 30 '11 at 20:35 — killkrazy, Oct 30 '11 at 20:35

score -1 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 30 '11 at 19:48

-1

Try with:

function assign_vars() {
    foreach($_POST as $index => $value) {
        $this->$index = $value;
    }
}

However the way you go is looking like not thought out solution.

answered Oct 30 '11 at 19:48

hsz

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If `$_POST` contains garbage and it isn't validated or cleaned out, it'll all be added to the object. Not very clean... – BoltClock Oct 30 '11 at 19:50
@BoltClock sure thing - but whole idea is not very clean. – hsz Oct 30 '11 at 20:10

classes assigning variables automatically

2 Answers2