PHP accessing numeric properties from an object to allow e.g. obj(explode("-","my-test-test"))->_0

gistfile1.aw

//lo sauer, 2011 - lsauer.com
PHP variable names can't start with a digit. As such non-associative array conversion can pose a problem. 
Additionally stdClass does not implement ArrayAccess - as PHP's base class.

//note: this is not serialized php code
$var = stdClass Object
(
    [0] => stdClass Object
        (
            ['my'] => 1442,
            ['data'] => "sample string"
        )
);
//this will fail in PHP 5+
print_r( $var->{'0'}->data );

//PHP's problem is the ceasation of constant variable setting and reading:
//since neither this 
explode("-","my-test-test")[0] nor
explode("-","my-test-test"){'0'} nor
((object)explode("-","my-test-test"))->{'0'};... will work!

//solution: object-casting wrapper
function obj($arr){return (object) $arr;}

//you should then be able to access properties directly as in most modern programming languages
print_r(obj(explode("-","my-test-test"))->{0});

//in php >5 this will however no longer work:
//->tries to access stdClass::$0 within the obj

//solution: object-casting wrapper which prefixes the indexes
function obj($arr){ for($i=count($arr), $cp=array(); $i; $i--,$cp['_'.$i]=$arr[$i]); return (object) $cp;}

obj(explode("-","my-test-test"))->_0
returns 'my'

In this case there we could have gotten the same result with ■array_shift or  ■each  however in complex situations
 an OOP approach holds advantages, above all is the clear left-to-right-reading of how the object 'evolved' in the programming code.