make_class_act_as_array.md

Make class act like array

SPL allows us to make our objects act like arrays in certain situations To do this, we need to implement the ArrayAccess interface and its four functions: offsetSet(), offsetGet(), offsetExists(), and offsetUnset()

class FileArray implements ArrayAccess {
    function offsetExists($offset) {
        return file_exists($offset);
    }

    function offsetGet($offset) {
        return file_get_contents($offset);
    }

    function offsetSet($offset, $value) {
        return file_put_contents($offset, $value);
    }

    function offsetUnset($offset) {
        return unlink($offset);
    }
}

// then we can use it like an array
$myarr = new FileArray();
$myarr["somefile.txt"] = "This is a test.";
echo $myarr["somefile.txt"];
$myarr["otherfile.txt"] = $myarr["somefile.txt"];

if (isset($myarr["somefile.txt"])) {
    unset($myarr["somefile.txt"]);
}