In PHP gibt es einen einzigen Typ Operator: instanceof. instanceof wird dazu verwendet um festzustellen, ob ein gegebenes Objekt ein Objekt ist, das zu einer bestimmten Klasse gehört.
instanceof wurde in PHP 5 eingeführt. Vorher wurde is_a() benutzt, aber is_a() ist veraltet und instanceof sollte stattdessen benutzt werden.
<?php class A { } class B { } $ding = new A; if ($ding instanceof A) { echo 'A'; } if ($ding instanceof B) { echo 'B'; } ?>
Da $ding ein object vom Typ A und nicht von B ist, wird nur der Programmblock ausgeführt, der abhängig von Typ A ist:
See auch get_class() und is_a().
Sometimes you want to typehint objects INSIDE an array, but I think you can't.
Instead, you can use this function to check the classes inside this array:
<?php
public checkObjectsArray(array $array, $classname, $strict = false) {
if (!$strict) {
foreach ($array as $element) {
if (!($element instanceof $classname)) {
return false;
}
}
}
else {
foreach ($array as $element) {
if (get_class($element) != $classname) {
return false;
}
}
}
return true;
}
?>
It seems like instanceOf is using a string comparison. Longer class names take longer to check in conditional statements
eg.
if ($f instanceOf HelloWorldTestClass)
is much slower than
if ($f instanceOf HWT)
You can use "self" to reference to the current class:
<?php
class myclass {
function mymethod($otherObject) {
if ($otherObject instanceof self) {
$otherObject->mymethod(null);
}
return 'works!';
}
}
$a = new myclass();
print $a->mymethod($a);
?>
Example #5 could also be extended to include...
var_dump($a instanceof MyInterface);
The new result would be
bool(true)
So - instanceof is smart enough to know that a class that implements an interface is an instance of the interface, not just the class. I didn't see that point made clearly enough in the explanation at the top.
The PHP parser generates a parse error on either of the two lines that are commented out here.
Apparently the 'instanceof' construct will take a string variable in the second spot, but it will NOT take a string... lame
class Bar {}
$b = new Bar;
$b_class = "Bar";
var_export($b instanceof Bar); // this is ok
var_export($b instanceof $b_class); // this is ok
//var_export($f instanceof "Bar"); // this is syntactically illegal
//var_export($f instanceof 'Bar'); // this is syntactically illegal
Response to vinyanov at poczta dot onet dot pl:
You mentionned "the instanceof operator will not accept a string as its first operand". However, this behavior is absolutely right and therefore, you're misleading the meaning of an instance.
<?php 'ClassA' instanceof 'ClassB'; ?> means "the class named ClassA is an instance of the class named ClassB". This is a nonsense sentence because when you instanciate a class, you ALWAYS obtain an object. Consequently, you only can ask if an object is an instance of a class.
I believe asking if "a ClassA belongs to a ClassB" (or "a ClassA is a class of (type) ClassB") or even "a ClassA is (also) a ClassB" is more appropriate. But the first is not implemented and the second only works with objects, just like the instanceof operator.
Plus, I just have tested your code and it does absolutely NOT do the same as instanceof (extended to classes)! I can't advise anyone to reuse it. The use of <?php is_instance_of ($instanceOfA, 'ClassB'); ?> raises a warning "include_once(Object id #1.php) …" when using __autoload (trying to look for $instanceOfA as if it was a class name).
Finally, here is a fast (to me) sample function code to verify if an object or class:
<?php
function kind_of (&$object_or_class, $class)
{
return is_object ($object_or_class) ?
$object_or_class instanceof $class
: (is_subclass_of ($object_or_class $class)
|| strtolower ($object_or_class) == strtolower ($class));
}
?>
Posting this so the word typeof appears on this page, so that this page will show up when you google 'php typeof'. ...yeah, former Java user.
Unfortunately the instanceof operator will not accept a string as its first operand. So I wrote this function. It does exactly the same (ie, successively checks identicalness, inheritance and implementation). Just on strings.
<?php
function is_instance_of($sub, $super)
{
$sub = (string)$sub;
$super = is_object($super) ? get_class($super) : (string)$super;
switch(true)
{
case $sub === $super; // well ... conformity
case is_subclass_of($sub, $super):
case in_array($super, class_implements($sub)):
return true;
default:
return false;
}
}
// testing
interface X {}
class A {}
class B extends A {}
class C extends B {}
class D implements X {}
$i = 'is_instance_of';
var_dump($i('A', 'A'), $i('B', 'A'), $i('C', 'A'), $i('D', 'X'));
?>
Cross version function even if you are working in php4
(instanceof is an undefined operator for php4)
function isMemberOf($classename) {
$ver = floor(phpversion());
if($ver > 4) {
$instanceof = create_function ('$obj,$classname','return $obj instanceof $classname;');
return $instanceof($this,$classname);
} else {
// Php4 uses lowercase for classname.
return is_a($this, strtolower($classname));
}
} // end function isMemberOf
Please note: != is a separate operator with separate semantics. Thinking about language grammar it's kind of ridicilous to negate an operator. Of course, it's possible to negate the result of a function (like is_a()), since it isn't negating the function itself or its semantics.
instanceof is a binary operator, and so used in binary terms like this
terma instanceof termb
while ! (negation) is a unary operator and so may be applied to a single term like this
!term
And a term never consists of an operator, only! There is no such construct in any language (please correct me!). However, instanceof doesn't finally support nested terms in every operand position ("terma" or "termb" above) as negation does:
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!term == term
So back again, did you ever write
a !!!!!!!!!!!!= b
to test equivalence?
I can confirm what thisbizness at gmail dot com said just below in PHP 5.2, furthermore, people looking to use this as a "if $a is not instance of A" for error throwing purposes or other, just type it like this:
<?php
if( !$a instanceof A ) {
throw new Exception( '$a is not instance of A.' );
}
?>
This also works if $a is not an object, or not even set (you will get an E_NOTICE if it isn't set though).
A note worth making is that if you are unsure of if class A is present when making this comparison, and you don't want to trigger the __autoload() magic method, scroll down for examples of how to get around this.
I was unsure about it at first since most other operators have their own negative (like !=) or they are/can be used as function calls (like !is_a()) but it is this simple. Hope it helps someone.
Until again!
Negated instanceof doesn't seem to be documented. When I read instanceof I think of it as a compairson operator (which I suppose it's not).
<?php
class A {}
class X {}
//parse error from !
if (new X !instanceof A) {
throw new Exception('X is not an A');
}
//proper way to negate instanceof ?
if (!(new X instanceof A)) {
throw new Exception('X is not an A');
}
?>
use this for cross-version development...
<?php
function is_instance_of($IIO_INSTANCE, $IIO_CLASS){
if(floor(phpversion()) > 4){
if($IIO_INSTANCE instanceof $IIO_CLASS){
return true;
}
else{
return false;
}
}
elseif(floor(phpversion()) > 3){
return is_a($IIO_INSTANCE, $IIO_CLASS);
}
else{
return false;
}
}
?>