In response to "rune at zedeler dot dk"s comment about class contents being equal, I have a similar issue. I want to sort an array of objects using sort().
I know I can do it with usort(), but I'm used to C++ where you can define operators that allow comparison. I see in the zend source code that it calls a compare_objects function, but I don't see any way to implement that function for an object. Would it have to be an extension to provide that interface?
If so, I'd like to suggest that you allow equivalence and/or comparison operations to be defined in a class definition in PHP. Then, the sorts of things rune and I want to do would be much easier.
Comparando objetos
No PHP 5, comparação de objetos é mais complicada que no PHP 4 e mais de acordo com o que é esperado de uma Linguagem Orientada a Objetos (não que PHP 5 seja uma delas).
Quando usar o operador de comparação (==), variáveis objeto são comparadas de maneira simples, nominalmente: Duas instâncias de objetos são iguais se tem os mesmos atributos e valores, e são instâncias da mesma classe.
Por outro lado, quando usando o operador de identidade (===), variáveis objetos são identicas se e somente se elas se referem a mesma instância da mesma classe.
Um exemplo evidenciará essas regras.
Exemplo #1 Exemplo de comparação de objetos no PHP 5
<?php
function bool2str($bool)
{
if ($bool === false) {
return 'FALSO';
} else {
return 'VERDADEIRO';
}
}
function compareObjetos(&$o1, &$o2)
{
echo 'o1 == o2 : '.bool2str($o1 == $o2)."\n";
echo 'o1 != o2 : '.bool2str($o1 != $o2)."\n";
echo 'o1 === o2 : '.bool2str($o1 === $o2)."\n";
echo 'o1 !== o2 : '.bool2str($o1 !== $o2)."\n";
}
class Flag
{
var $flag;
function Flag($flag=true) {
$this->flag = $flag;
}
}
class OutraFlag
{
var $flag;
function OutraFlag($flag=true) {
$this->flag = $flag;
}
}
$o = new Flag();
$p = new Flag();
$q = $o;
$r = new OutraFlag();
echo "Duas instâncias da mesma classe\n";
compareObjetos($o, $p);
echo "\nDuas referências para a mesma instância\n";
compareObjetos($o, $q);
echo "\nInstâncias de duas classes diferentes\n";
compareObjetos($o, $r);
?>
O exemplo acima irá imprimir:
Duas instâncias da mesma classe o1 == o2 : VERDADEIRO o1 != o2 : FALSO o1 === o2 : FALSO o1 !== o2 : VERDADEIRO Duas referências para a mesma instância o1 == o2 : VERDADEIRO o1 != o2 : FALSO o1 === o2 : VERDADEIRO o1 !== o2 : FALSO Instâncias de duas classes diferentes o1 == o2 : FALSO o1 != o2 : VERDADEIRO o1 === o2 : FALSO o1 !== o2 : VERDADEIRO
Nota: Extensões podem definir suas regras para comparação de objetos.
Comparando objetos
05-Mar-2008 05:50
11-Mar-2007 04:20
Note that classes deriving from the same parent aren't considered equal when comparing even using ==; they should also be objects of the same child class.
<?php
class Mom {
private $mAttribute;
public function Mom( $attribute ) {
$this->mAttribute = $attribute;
}
public function Attribute() {
return $this->mAttribute;
}
}
final class Sister extends Mom {
public function Sister( $attribute ) {
$this->Mom( $attribute );
}
}
final class Brother extends Mom {
public function Brother( $attribute ) {
$this->Mom( $attribute );
}
}
$sister = new Sister( 5 );
$brother = new Brother( 5 );
assert( $sister == $brother ); // will FAIL!
?>
This assertion will fail, because sister and brother are not of the same child class!
If you want to compare based on the parent class object type only, you might have to define a function for comparisons like these, and use it instead of the == operator:
<?php
function SiblingsEqual( $a, $b ) {
if ( !( $a instanceof Mom ) ) {
return false;
}
if ( !( $b instanceof Mom ) ) {
return false;
}
if ( $a->Attribute() != $b->Attribute() ) {
return false;
}
return true;
}
assert( SiblingsEqual( $sister, $brother ) ); // will succeed
?>
28-Feb-2007 05:34
Whoops, apparently I hadn't checked the array-part of the below very well.
Forgot to test if the arrays had same length, and had some misaligned parenthesis.
This one should work better :+)
<?
function deepCompare($a,$b) {
if(is_object($a) && is_object($b)) {
if(get_class($a)!=get_class($b))
return false;
foreach($a as $key => $val) {
if(!deepCompare($val,$b->$key))
return false;
}
return true;
}
else if(is_array($a) && is_array($b)) {
while(!is_null(key($a)) && !is_null(key($b))) {
if (key($a)!==key($b) || !deepCompare(current($a),current($b)))
return false;
next($a); next($b);
}
return is_null(key($a)) && is_null(key($b));
}
else
return $a===$b;
}
?>
28-Feb-2007 05:27
I haven't found a build-in function to check whether two obects are identical - that is, all their fields are identical.
In other words,
<?
class A {
var $x;
function __construct($x) { $this->x = $x; }
}
$identical1 = new A(42);
$identical2 = new A(42);
$different = new A('42');
?>
Comparing the objects with "==" will claim that all three of them are equal. Comparing with "===" will claim that all are un-equal.
I have found no build-in function to check that the two identicals are
identical, but not identical to the different.
The following function does that:
<?
function deepCompare($a,$b) {
if(is_object($a) && is_object($b)) {
if(get_class($a)!=get_class($b))
return false;
foreach($a as $key => $val) {
if(!deepCompare($val,$b->$key))
return false;
}
return true;
}
else if(is_array($a) && is_array($b)) {
while(!is_null(key($a) && !is_null(key($b)))) {
if (key($a)!==key($b) || !deepCompare(current($a),current($b)))
return false;
next($a); next($b);
}
return true;
}
else
return $a===$b;
}
?>
08-Dec-2006 11:36
Note that when comparing object attributes, the comparison is recursive (at least, it is with PHP 5.2). That is, if $a->x contains an object then that will be compared with $b->x in the same manner. Be aware that this can lead to recursion errors:
<?php
class Foo {
public $x;
}
$a = new Foo();
$b = new Foo();
$a->x = $b;
$b->x = $a;
print_r($a == $b);
?>
Results in:
PHP Fatal error: Nesting level too deep - recursive dependency? in test.php on line 11
