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Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2019 10:23:06 -0400
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To: Rowan Collins <rowan.collins@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Proposal for a RFC
From: stevenwadejr@gmail.com (Steven Wade)

Apologies for the super late response:

> A recursive method would certainly have more value, because it =
actually
> does something more than translate one syntax to another. On the other
> hand, the use case that comes to mind is serialization, and we already =
have
> more specific methods and systems for that.

How could this new magic method be recursive? If it only works if you =
manually declare __toArray() in your class, wouldn't you then as the =
user be in charge of casting anything manually in your method =
implementation?

>=20
> I guess that's what it comes down to, what *specific* use cases would =
this
> feature be intended to help with? Is there some code of your own that
> inspired you to propose it, or something you've seen publically that =
would
> benefit from it?

Originally, it was inspired by seeing Laravel's use of Arrayable as an =
interface and if something implements that, calling that class' =
`toArray()` method, and wishing that was built in so that frameworks =
didn't re-invent the wheel every time.=20

As far as in my code, collections being cast as an array easily would be =
nice. Models with relationships, being able to implement that cast and =
control how your model and its children are (or aren't) represented. =
That's useful for returning an array in a controller for an API, or for =
simply adding context to a log message.

IMO, the point is, it's another tool in the developers arsenal that they =
can use when they see fit. Not everyone will use it and not everyone =
will see the benefit of it, and that's ok, but for those that would and =
could, __toArray() is for them (and me).

--
Steven Wade
stevenwadejr@gmail.com