some notes on php design

Today, I have read on metapundit.net some thoughts on how to improve php coding. Don’t see the real point in this, except the faster coding. Readability and maintenance is degraded slightly.

Update – 18.11.2006. – After taking some time to think about this, I have to agree with MetaPundit. Putting var names into array, and looping trough them makes code more maintainable. But I still have some issues with this, regarding more complex stuff.

Example 1:

class foo{
function foo($duration, $height, $width, $quality){
$this->_duration = $duration;
$this->_height = $height;
$this->_width = $width;
$this->_quality = $quality;
}
/* Useful code goes here*/

...

class foo{
function foo($duration, $height, $width, $quality){
foreach(array('duration', 'height', 'width', 'quality') as $arg)
{
$this->{"_$arg"} = $$arg;
}
}

Example 2:

$row = $db->query('select * from foo');

$template->setVariable('fname',$row['fname']);

$template->setVariable('lname',$row['lname']);

$template->setVariable('zip',$row['zip']);

$template->setVariable('city',$row['city']);

$template->setVariable('state',$row['state']);

$template->setVariable('street',$row['street']);

$template->setVariable('county',$row['county']);
...
$row = $db->query('select * from foo');
foreach(array('fname','lname','zip','city','state','street','zip','county') as $field)
$template->setVariable($field,$row[$field]);
...