PHPCollections is a set of Java/C#-like collections written in PHP, the idea behind this is to have a similar way of dealing with large and complex amounts of data in a powerful way with a simple API instead of working with plain PHP arrays.
I started this project about a year ago (the first commit date is 10/10/2017!), and for whatever reason I never found the time to complete it, until now of course.
Why PHPCollections?
Maybe you’re thinking right now “why work with collections?”, “What is the big deal?”, “We have beautiful native arrays!”, and you are totally right, in a dynamic language like PHP, arrays fit almost any need.
But! Every day more people are using PHP to build larger and more complex applications, and manipulating data can turn into a really awful experience. So, here is when PHPCollections come to scene.
PHPCollections offers a set of different well-documented classes to fit different needs: do you need a stack to represent a set of descendant ordered data? Do you need to only store a certain type of object into a collection? Do you need a collection as flexible as native PHP arrays but with the power of object-oriented? PHPCollections has you cover!
Different type of collections
Right now the package offers 4 different types of collections with different use cases and capabilities:
- ArrayList
- Dictionary
- GenericList
- Stack
Less talk, more code!
My favorite type of collection without any doubt is GenericList, we all know that PHP doesn't support generic types, in languages like Java we can do something like this ArrayList<User> users = new ArrayList<User>(); to store just objects of type User into our collection, in PHP you simply can't, well, you couldn't until now.
use PHPCollections\Collections\GenericList;
use Fake\Namespace\User;$users = new GenericList(
User::class,
new User('Robert Smith'),
new User('Siouxsie Sioux'),
);
Beautiful, now we have a collection of User objects and any intent to add some other type of data to the class will fail!
$users->add(new \StdClass()); // This line throws an InvalidArgumentException!With this verification you can be more confident your program will run the right way because you’re removing an error source.
But wait, we love arrays!
That’s right! That’s the reason PHPCollections offers ArrayList
use PHPCollections\Collections\ArrayList;
use Fake\Namespace\User;$users = new ArrayList(
new User('Patricia Morrison'),
new User('Peter Murphy'),
);/*
* I'll add this array as an user and it's ok because YOLO
*/
$users->add(['name' => 'Sid Vicious']);
Most collections offer a variety of useful methods, and even a fluent interface to manipulate your data.
$users->map(function ($user) {
$user->name = sprintf('%s %s', 'Sr.', $user->name);
return $user;
})->merge([
new User('Ian Curtis'),
new User('Andrew Eldritch'),
])->forEach(function ($user, $key) {
print($user->name);
})If you like the package you can find it on Github, and check the documentation in here.
Post-credits
I put a lot of effort in building PHPCollections, if you come from the Java/C# world I hope you like it, if you’re a pure PHP developer I hope you like it too! And if you haven’t work with collections before I hope you give it a try. Thanks for staying this long!
Originally posted on devalmonte.com
