How would you convert a PHP variable to a string? Is there something like the toString method that Java has in PHP?
PHP has casting operators that can be used to convert non-string variables into strings. Here is how to use a casting operator to convert a variable to a string in PHP:
Example of PHP’s equivalent to toString
// this is an integer: $nonStringVar = 123; /*now $stringVar is a string because the "(string)" performs a type cast and returns the string equivalent of the integer */ $stringVar = (string)$nonStringVar;
The casting operator is fairly close in functionality to the toString method in Java, but read below because PHP also has a it’s own __toString method.
Using the strval function to convert a variable to a string
You can also use the function strval to get the string value of a variable.
// this is an integer: $nonStringVar = 123; //now $stringVar is a string $aString = strval($nonStringVar);
PHP does have a __toString magic method
PHP also provides a method called __toString that is defined by the programmer, and that basically tells a class how to act when it is treated like a string. When would a class be treated like a string? Well, suppose you have a class called SomeClass, and an object of that class called $someObject. If you decide to do something like this: “echo $someObject;”, then what exactly should be output in that scenario? Well, that is up to you to decide – because whatever you define in __toString method is what will be output to the page. You can decide to output all of the class’s instance variables, output a particular string, etc. – but whatever you do the __toString method will have to return a string.
Here is an example of the __toString method in action:
class SomeClass
{
public $aVariable;
public function __construct($aVariable)
{
$this->aVariable = $aVariable;
}
public function __toString()
{
return $this->aVariable;
}
}
$someObject = new SomeClass('Testing 123');
/* this will indirectly call the toString method:
which will output the string 'Testing 123'
*/
echo $someObject;
The __toString method is a magic method – you can read more about magic methods here if you are not familiar with them already: Magic methods in PHP.