What is stdClass in PHP?

Question 1

Please define what stdClass is.

Question 2

stdClass is PHP's generic empty class, kind of like Object in Java or object in Python (Edit: but not actually used as universal base class; thanks @Ciaran for pointing this out).

It is useful for anonymous objects, dynamic properties, etc.

An easy way to consider the StdClass is as an alternative to associative array. See this example below that shows how json_decode() allows to get an StdClass instance or an associative array. Also but not shown in this example, SoapClient::__soapCall returns an StdClass instance.

<?php
//Example with StdClass
$json = '{ "foo": "bar", "number": 42 }';
$stdInstance = json_decode($json);
echo $stdInstance->foo . PHP_EOL; //"bar"
echo $stdInstance->number . PHP_EOL; //42
//Example with associative array
$array = json_decode($json, true);
echo $array['foo'] . PHP_EOL; //"bar"
echo $array['number'] . PHP_EOL; //42

See Dynamic Properties in PHP and StdClass for more examples.

Question 3

See the manual on Type Juggling on possible casts.

The casts allowed are:

(int), (integer) - cast to integer
(bool), (boolean) - cast to boolean
(float), (double), (real) - cast to float
(string) - cast to string
(array) - cast to array
(object) - cast to object
(unset) - cast to NULL (PHP 5)

You would have to write a Mapper that does the casting from stdClass to another concrete class. Shouldn't be too hard to do.

Or, if you are in a hackish mood, you could adapt the following code:

function arrayToObject(array $array, $className) {
    return unserialize(sprintf(
        'O:%d:"%s"%s',
        strlen($className),
        $className,
        strstr(serialize($array), ':')
    ));
}

which pseudocasts an array to an object of a certain class. This works by first serializing the array and then changing the serialized data so that it represents a certain class. The result is unserialized to an instance of this class then. But like I said, it's hackish, so expect side-effects.

For object to object, the code would be

function objectToObject($instance, $className) {
    return unserialize(sprintf(
        'O:%d:"%s"%s',
        strlen($className),
        $className,
        strstr(strstr(serialize($instance), '"'), ':')
    ));
}

Question 4

realpath_cache is the system that allows php to cache paths to locations of files/directories you are using to minimize expensive disk lookups. It could possibly greatly improve performance of you PHP application/site if you use alot of relative file paths PHP has to parse/lookup each time you reference them.

Question 5

So,

echo $object->distlat;
echo $object->distlng;

doesn't work for you?

Question 6

cURL is a library that lets you make HTTP requests in PHP. Everything you need to know about it (and most other extensions) can be found in the PHP manual.

In order to use PHP's cURL functions you need to install the » libcurl package. PHP requires that you use libcurl 7.0.2-beta or higher. In PHP 4.2.3, you will need libcurl version 7.9.0 or higher. From PHP 4.3.0, you will need a libcurl version that's 7.9.8 or higher. PHP 5.0.0 requires a libcurl version 7.10.5 or greater.

You can make HTTP requests without cURL, too, though it requires allow_url_fopen to be enabled in your php.ini file.

// Make a HTTP GET request and print it (requires allow_url_fopen to be enabled)
print file_get_contents('http://www.example.com/');

What is stdClass in PHP?

Answers

php,stdclass