Type declaration (aka type hinting) for any object

[NotionCommotion]

Is it possible to declare a function parameter is an object, but not specify the instance of that object?  The following only allows stdClasses.  Reference http://php.net/manual/en/functions.arguments.php#functions.arguments.type-declaration

    protected function object_merge(\stdClass $obj,\stdClass $obj1)
    {
        foreach($obj1 as $key=>$property) {
            $obj->$key=$property;
        }
        return $obj;
    }

[requinix]

Not yet: "object" will be available in 7.2.

 

But I'm skeptical that you should be allowing any object. What about ones that implement __get/set? I'm pretty sure your method is only designed to work on particular sorts of objects...

[NotionCommotion]

Thanks.  Common use will be to query db which returns stdclass and add to it.  Probably you are right about not allowing other types of objects.

[NotionCommotion]

Since objects are always passed by reference, does this make any sense or should one just update it and not reset it?

$someObj->objToBuUpdated=$this->object_merge($someObj->objToBuUpdated,$addedObj);

[requinix]

Depends whether you want to modify the original or get a copy.

[NotionCommotion]

Modify the original.  I didn't think it would even make a copy but would instead just be a reference.

[requinix]

I'd wrap the stdClass in your own class

class Whatever {

	private $data = [];

	public function __construct(\stdClass $source) {
		$this->data = get_object_vars($source);
	}

	public function merge($object) {
		if ($object instanceof self) {
			$this->data = array_merge($object->data);
		} else {
			$this->data = array_merge($this->data, get_object_vars($object));
		}
	}

}

and

$someObj = new Whatever($someObj);
$someObj->merge($addedObj);

Point is, avoid making static methods (oh: your object_merge() should be static since it doesn't use instance data) that operate on other objects. That sort of functionality should be dealt with in their respective classes.