Get variable name of object from within the object

[haku]

I'm wondering if it's possible to recover the name of the variable that has been created as an object, from within that object.

 

For example, lets say I have a class named 'person'. I create a new instance of person named 'haku':

 

$haku = new person;

 

I want to create a method inside of the person class to recover the name 'haku'. It would be something like:

 

<?php
class person
{
  var persons_name;
  function __construct()
  {
    $this->persons_name = ____________; // this is where I want to store the name 'haku'
  }
}
?>

 

I kind of suspect it's not possible, but I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas on whether it can be done.

[Ken2k7]

What do you mean by "recover"?

 

Edit - shouldn't var persons_name be var $persons_name?

[haku]

By 'recover' I mean 'get'. Not sure why I chose that as a word

 

And yes, you are right about the variable, but I was just typing that out as an example, my actual class is a different name and significantly more complicated, so I just wanted to throw up a simple example.

[Ken2k7]

I don't think you can haku because in the construct method, the variable $haku has yet to be defined. Perhaps if you were to have an empty constructor an an init or set method that takes the variable $haku after it's been defined.

 

Like

class Person {
     private $name;
     public function __construct () {
     }
     public function setName ($var) {
          // define it here. Use get_defined_vars() with spl_object_hash() to check
          // if $var is equal to $this. If so, get the key, which would be 'haku'.
     }
}

$haku = new Person;
$haku->setName($haku);

 

Kind of redundant. I'm not sure how else to do it. I know $haku has to be defined before you can use it.

[Daniel0]

No, you cannot. You'll have to pass the name you want to the object manually.

[Mchl]

Don't mix variable identifiers and application data.

[Masna]

Store itself in itself... Sounds like you're trying to cause the universe to implode. 

[Ken2k7]

Well, it's a bad way of doing it, but you can do this -

 

class Person {
     private $name = '';
     
     public function __construct () {}
     
     public function setName ($person, $all_vars) {
          $this_hash = spl_object_hash($this);
          foreach ($all_vars as $key => $val) {
               if ($val instanceof Person) {
                    $hash = spl_object_hash($val);
                    if ($hash === $this_hash) {
                         $this->name = $key;
                         break;
                    }
               }
          }
     }
     
     public function getName () { return $this-> name; }
}

$haku = new Person;
$Ken2k7 = new Person;

$all_vars = get_defined_vars();
$haku->setName($haku, $all_vars);
$Ken2k7->setName($Ken2k7, $all_vars);

echo $haku->getName();
echo $Ken2k7->getName();

 

That should work. You may want to make it less ... tacky, but it's going to be tacky regardless.

[Daniel0]

I'm working on this project where we are required to use a particular CMS as base for the code. The developers of this CMS though it would be a mighty clever idea to screw over PHP's object model. I can assure you it isn't clever, but just incredibly retarded and frustrating, or as one of the people I work with said, "the developers should be shot on sight". Just leave things to work like they normally do, and how you would expect them to work.