I have a class CalculatePrice. Running this code:
$calc = new CalculatePrice( 10, 20 );
print_r ( $calc->do() );
The do() method returns a different class called PriceObj. If I ran the code echo $calc->do() then I get an error: Object of class PriceObj could not be converted to string.
My question is: how can I still return an object from the do() method but when running an echo to it, it returns a string or even simpler; true or false? Is this possible?
That's possible when the object is convertible to a string using the __toString()-method:
class A {
private $val;
public function __construct($myVal) {
$this->val = $myVal;
}
public function __toString() {
return "I hold ".$this->val;
}
}
$obj = new A(4);
echo $obj; // will print 'I hold 4';
You can only echo strings. But luckily you can convert your object to a string. This can be done automatically by providing a __toString() function
This is a magic method that does exactly what you want: make a string out of an object. See: http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.magic.php#object.tostring
The basic thing is you are the only one who knows HOW to make a string from the object (show all or a part of the variables inside for instance), so you need to implement how the string is build yourself.
Implement the magic method __toString() on your PriceObj.
So:
public function __toString()
{
echo $this->result; // The calculated price
}
return $calc->do()and in your code echo that desired property or call one of its functions (and that one willechowhat you want)