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Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2011 11:15:29 -0400
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 PHP internals <internals@lists.php.net>
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To: dukeofgaming <dukeofgaming@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Object and Array Literals
From: sean@seancoates.com (Sean Coates)

> Can you provide an use case and code example of how that would look?

Sure.

Here's how an ElasticSearch query currently looks in PHP:

$esQuery =3D new \StdClass;
$esQuery->query =3D new \StdClass;
$esQuery->query->term =3D new \StdClass;
$esQuery->query->term->name =3D 'beer';
$esQuery->size =3D 1;

// OR

$esQuery =3D (object)array(
    "query" =3D> (object)array(
        "term" =3D> (object)array(
            "name" =3D> "beer"
        )
    ),
    "size" =3D> 1
);

=85and here's how it could look with the proposed syntax:

<?php
$esQuery =3D {
    "query" : {
        "term" : {
            "name": "beer"
        }
    },
    "size" : 1
};

=85and here's how I'd use curl to ensure that the query I'm issuing does =
in fact work with ElasticSearch:

$ curl http://localhost:9200/gimmebar/assets/_search?pretty=3D1 -d'{
>     "query" : {
>         "term" : {
>             "name": "beer"
>         }
>     },
>     "size" : 1
> }'

Even considering the `(object)array(` syntax, it's much easier to work =
with an external query (as shown with curl), if we have a (nearly) =
JSON-compatible syntax in PHP.

Note that I *could* have written the PHP definition of $esQuery with the =
proposed syntax and non-JSON compatible syntax (single quotes, for =
example), but I chose to write it with double quotes because I knew I =
might also want to pass it to curl.

Realistically, "beer" would be in a variable (maybe `{"term": {"name": =
$term}}`), but replacing just the variables is certainly much easier =
than translating the `new \StdClass` syntax.

The argument for right-hand-side assignments being allowed in the =
proposed syntax (such as in `{'time': time()}`) is still valid because I =
expect this syntax will be used both for interoperating with third party =
services (as above), but also generally for object and array creation =
without a care about third parties.

S