Script ignoring __toString()

[Guest]

Hi folks, I'm fairly certain this fits here, so here goes:

 

I have an object oriented template system (a class named Template), and a Form object that extends Template.

 

Both objects use the __toString() magic function, and at first, this worked. At the end of the page I'd have:

 

echo $template;

 

Then, sometime down the road, the script suddenly started ignoring __toString() and started putting out "Object Id #" -- the odd thing is that this change did not occur while I was editing the classes themselves. And what changes I did make, I undid (even though they shouldn't be the cause), and yet the problem remains.

 

I can (and have) simply changed all my calls to the object to an appropriate display() function, but I was wondering if anyone may know just what may cause PHP to suddenly overlook __toString()?

 

Thanks in advance.

[utexas_pjm]

May seem obvious, but as a sanity check I would check to see that you did not inadvertentlyswitch from PHP5 to PHP4.

[Guest]

May seem obvious, but as a sanity check I would check to see that you did not inadvertentlyswitch from PHP5 to PHP4.

 

That would've been quite a punch in the face if it were the case, heh! But, yep, the server's running PHP 5.1.6. I suspected the same when it first happened.

 

Any other ideas?

[Guest]

Did some research and there are people who state the __toString() function isn't invoked unless used directly with print or echo. Which seems a bit odd, there are times where I didn't use print/echo and the value returned was still a string.

 

Perhaps, in php 5.1.6, __toString()'s "priority" is lower than in 5.2? Just a guess, otherwise, does anyone really know how the PHP engine decides whether to return the object or the string value?

 

Might be a clue.

[448191]

Please check the following:

 

1. Do you have error_reporting set on E_ALL

2. Check your PHP ver, reinstall 5.2 if required

3. Are you trying to echo out a freshly contructed object? I.e.:

 

echo new Class;

 

will produce the following error:

 

Fatal error: Method Class::__toString() must return a string value

 

4. Ensure __toString() is actually returning a string, use typecasting if required

5. Ensure __toString() is declared public

 

 

But 3 to 5 should produce errors/notices.

 

Only other thing I can think of:

 

You have misspelled __toString or have declared it private, AND you are forwarding the request to to a different class using __call or because of your inheritance tree, which returns an object  (bad sentence, but you get the idea).

 

In any case, might be a good idea to share your code.