PHP Array values and concatenation problem

Question

I have a short title and message that I want to show, defining the following:

class A {
  public $name = 'Mark';
  public $entry = array(
    'title'   => 'Some title',
    'message' => 'Hi '.$name
  );

  // Constructor
  public function __construct() {}

  // Some other functions
}

This isn't working.

Can someone explain why? Should I go for separate variables instead or is there a better way? Thanks for your time.

EDIT

what do you mean isn't working?, also, as your code is written i tried it and it worked fine, setting $entry['message'] equal to 'Hi Mark' — GSto
– GSto, Commented Feb 28, 2011 at 18:27
I think you need to show us a bit more code instead of just the declaration. — Jim
– Jim, Commented Feb 28, 2011 at 18:38
Yes, you are right. The issue seems to pop up, when wrapped in a simple class - for example wrapped in class A {...}. It says: Parse error: parse error, expecting `')'' — bad_programmer
– bad_programmer, Commented Feb 28, 2011 at 18:39
Please show us your code, so we can know what are you talking about :-) — mailo
– mailo, Commented Feb 28, 2011 at 18:41
Its a good question which shows how important is the topic "Runtime and compile-time ops in Classes". — Gelmir
– Gelmir, Commented Feb 28, 2011 at 18:50

Gelmir · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-28 19:11:22Z

2

You are trying to pull that off in property declaration of a Class, aren't you? Property declarations happen during COMPILE-TIME and can only accept values, not operations that require RUN-TIME to happen and concatenation definitely is a run-time operation... Put that line into your constructor method instead.

class A
{
    public $name = 'Mark';
    public $entry = array("test");
    public $var1 = someFunct();    // WRONG, ITS AN OPERATION and REQUIRES RUNTIME
    public $var2 = 1 + 2; // WRONG, ITS AN OPERATION and REQUIRES RUNTIME
    public $var3 = CLASS_NAME::SOME_CONSTANT_OR_PROPERTY_HERE; // WORKS, CONSTANTS ARE DETECTED IN COMPILE-TIME
    public $var4 = $anythingWithDollarSign; // WRONG, SYNTAX ERROR, REQUIRES RUNTIME

    public function __construct() {
        $this->entry = array( 'title' => 'Some title', 'message' => 'Hi ' . $this->name );
    }
}

edited Feb 28, 2011 at 19:11

answered Feb 28, 2011 at 18:48

Gelmir

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2 Comments

bad_programmer Over a year ago

Ok, I know that this is possible. But I'm trying to do something else. Anyway, thanks for the help.

bad_programmer Over a year ago

The initialization of the variable through the constructor. What if entry is a static array, which I want to access from another class?

RobertPitt · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-28 19:11:10Z

0

in classes, you can only declare variables that consist of a static value, and not a dynamic value such as "name" . $name.

What you would have to do is concat in the constructor, (That's why its there):

class A
{
    public $name = 'Mark';

    public $entry = array(
        'title'   => 'Some title',
        'message' => 'Hi %s'
    );

    // Constructor
    public function __construct()
    {
        $this->entry["message"] = sprintf($this->entry["message"],$this->name);
    }
}

answered Feb 28, 2011 at 19:11

RobertPitt

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2 Comments

Gelmir Over a year ago

I would call this an "overkill" if not a "dirty-code" :) No offense.

RobertPitt Over a year ago

No offence taken, I only used sprintf to show the string manipulation in the constructor.

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