All flavors of PHP 8 getters

Getters are the most basic methods a class can have. Their only job is to return a value, usualy from its properties. There's isn't much to say about it.

Or is there? 🤨

Today I'm going to present you 10 ways you can implement a getter in PHP 8.0.

• Public access
• Classic getter
• Classic getter, but without a verb
• Getter/setter
• Magic getter
• Offset getter
• Magic call
• Reference getter
• Encapsulation violation 🤫
• Returning a closure

Let's get started!

Public access

class User
{
    public string $name = "Robert PAULSON";
}

✅ Pros

• No need to write a getter method

❌ Cons

• Cannot be part of an interface
• Exposes object's internal state

Classic getter

class User
{
    public function getName(): string
    {
        return "Robert PAULSON";
    }
}

✅ Pros

• Can be part of an interface
• Straightforward and easy to understand

❌ Cons

• ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Classic getter, but without a verb

class User
{
    public function name(): string
    {
        return "Robert PAULSON";
    }
}

✅ Pros

• Can still be part of an interface
• Shorter than getName

❌ Cons

• Methods without a verb can be confusing

Getter/setter

class User
{
    private string $name = "Robert PAULSON";

    public function name(?string $name = null): string
    {
        if ($name) {
            $this->name = $name;
        }

        return $this->name;
    }
}

✅ Pros

• Same as above
• Less code to write if you also need a setter

❌ Cons

• What if you want to set the value to null?
• Violates the Single Responsibility Principle

Magic getter

/**
 * @property string $name
 */
class User
{
    private string $name = "Robert PAULSON";

    public function __get($key)
    {
        if ($key == 'name') {
            return $this->name;
        }
    }
}

✅ Pros

• You can expose protected and private members on your own terms

❌ Cons

• You can't always typehint the returned value
• Some companies have banned this (seriously)
• You're going to need an annotation @property or PHPStorm won't "see" it

Offset getter

class User extends ArrayAccess
{
    public offsetExists($offset): bool
    {
        return $offset == 'name';
    }

    public offsetGet($offset)
    {
        if ($offset == 'name') {
            return 'Robert PAULSON';
        }
    }
}

✅ Pros

• Same as magic getter
• Super cool $object['name'] notation

❌ Cons

• Same as magic getter

Magic call

/**
 * @method string getName()
 */
class User
{
    public function __call($method, $args)
    {
        if ($method == 'getName') {
            return 'Robert PAULSON';
        }
    }
}

✅ Pros

• Same as using magic getters
• Save "space" by grouping several getters in one method
• You can create aliases for your existing getters without adding new methods

❌ Cons

• You're going to need an annotation @method or PHPStorm won't "see" it
• If you need this to lower the number of methods in your class, it might be the sign of a design issue

Reference getter

class User
{
    private string $name = "Robert PAULSON";

    public function &getName(): string
    {
        return $this->name;
    }
}

// usage
$user = new User;
var_dump($user); // string(14) "Robert PAULSON"

$name = &$user->getName();
$name = "Tyler DURDEN";
var_dump($user); // string(12) "Tyler DURDEN"

✅ Pros

• Used for performance optimizations (eliminates the function call overhead)

❌ Cons

• I hope you know what you're doing

Encapsulation violation

class User
{
    private string $name = "Robert PAULSON";
}

// can't access $name because it's private
// and there's no getter to obtain its value
$user = new User();

// let's use the reflection API
$property = (new ReflectionClass(User::class))->getProperty('name');
$property->setAccessible(true);
$name = $property->getValue($user);

echo $name; // Robert PAULSON

✅ Pros

• Very useful for debugging classes you don't own without rewriting them

❌ Cons

• Very slow
• Quite ugly

Returning a closure

class User
{
    private $name = "Robert PAULSON";

    public function obtainNameGetter(): callable
    {
        return fn() => $this->name;
    }

    public function setName(string $name): void
    {
        $this->name = $name;
    }
}

// usage
$user = new User();
$getter = $user->obtainNameGetter();

echo $getter(); // "Robert PAULSON"

// now let's change the username
$user->setName("Tyler DURDEN");

echo $getter(); // "Tyler DURDEN"

✅ Pros

• Can be used to solve circular dependencies
• Poor-man lazy-loading implementation
• You can compose the returned closure

❌ Cons

• The returned closure is a black-box
• You cannot serialize the returned value easily

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Comments

[Doeke Norg]

I know the list is about 8.0, but in PHP 8.1 you can add readonly to the public parameter to prevent this con: Anyone can change the value. Nice list though!

[Benjamin Delespierre]

Thanks, I'll add it as soon as PHP 8.1 comes out. There won't be much need for 99% of getters after that release 😅

[Карлос Кастанеда ✳️]

One more way: use Closure::bind().

[Benjamin Delespierre]

Good call 😉 I'm adding it!

[Doeke Norg]

class SomeClass
{
    private string $title = 'Some Class Title';
}

$some = new SomeClass();

$closure = function() {
    return $this->title;
};

$get_title = $closure->bindTo($some, $some);

echo $get_title(); // Some Class Title

I think this is the idea. Very nasty, but indeed effective :-)

::bind() is the static variant of ->bindTo()

For those that want an example from the wild, checkout this NullAdapter from Symfony. It uses Closure::bind() to wrap items from the cache into CacheItem DTO's.

[Benjamin Delespierre]

Interesting way of breaking encapsulation 👍

[Sujit Agarwal]

Interesting.

[Andrei Dascalu]

You have a weird definition of what's a pro and a con:

• 2 birds with one stone => violate SRP, which you mention so technically you're calling the pro also a con (fair, but confusing)
• can execute arbitrary code => violate the meaning of getter (eg: return the underlying value, the expectation is not to have arbitrary side-effects), technically is a call to violate SRP

"Getter/setter" - also same 'con' as public access: anyone can change the value.

[Benjamin Delespierre]

Thanks for your message. Your concerns actually make sense. I'll change the article.

[vuong ⛈️]

Thanks for posting. Where are exactly the points that only can do within >= 8.x versions?