Box.php

<?php

class Box
{
    private $_private_data;
    private $_changed_keys = array();

    public function __construct(Array $data)
    {
        $this->_private_data = $data;
    }

    public function __get($key)
    {
        if (array_key_exists($key, $this->_private_data)) {
            return $this->_private_data[$key];
        } else {
            return NULL;
        }
    }

    public function asArray($key)
    {
        if (array_key_exists($key, $this->_private_data)) {
            return $this->_private_data[$key];
        } else {
            return array();
        }
    }

    public function inArray($key, $val)
    {
        //var_dump('is val `'.$val.'` in array for `'.$key.'`', $val, $key);
        if (array_key_exists($key, $this->_private_data)
            && is_array($this->_private_data[$key])
        ) {
            // Code Ignighter DB likes to "help" by making some values into integers
            return in_array(is_int($val) ? (string)$val : $val, $this->_private_data[$key], TRUE);
        } else {
            return FALSE;
        }
    }

    public function __set($name, $value)
    {
        $this->_private_data[$name] = $value;
        $this->_changed_keys[$name] = TRUE;
    }

    public function getData()
    {
        return $this->_private_data;
    }

    public function getChanged()
    {
        return array_keys($this->_changed_keys);
    }

    public function merge(Array $new)
    {
        foreach ($new as $k => $v) {
            if ( ! array_key_exists($k, $this->_private_data)) {
                if ($v === '' OR $v === FALSE OR $v === NULL) {
                    continue;
                }
                $this->__set($k, $v);

            } else if ($v !== $this->_private_data[$k]) {
                $this->__set($k, $v);
            }
        }
    }
}