Can You Cast an stdClass Object to a Specific Class in PHP?

Casting stdClass Objects to Specific Classes

The concept of casting an stdClass object to another class raises a fascinating question regarding PHP's capabilities.

Although the provided third-party storage system consistently returns stdClass objects, users may seek methods to convert these objects into full-fledged instances of a specific class. The desired syntax would resemble the following:

//$stdClass is an stdClass instance
$converted = (BusinessClass) $stdClass;

While manually casting an stdClass into an array and passing it into the constructor of another class is possible, exploring alternative approaches is worthwhile.

According to the PHP manual on Type Juggling, PHP provides a range of possible casts, including integer, float, string, and object. However, direct casting from stdClass to a specific class is not natively supported.

To address this requirement, developers may consider creating a mapper that performs the conversion from stdClass to the desired class. Alternatively, a more inventive approach involves adapting the following code:

function arrayToObject(array $array, $className) {
    return unserialize(sprintf(
        'O:%d:"%s"%s',
        strlen($className),
        $className,
        strstr(serialize($array), ':')
    ));
}

This function attempts to cast an array to an object of a specified class by manipulating the serialized data. While this technique offers a form of pseudo-casting, it should be noted that it may introduce side effects and is not considered a reliable solution.

For casting an object to another object, a slightly modified version of the code can be utilized:

function objectToObject($instance, $className) {
    return unserialize(sprintf(
        'O:%d:"%s"%s',
        strlen($className),
        $className,
        strstr(strstr(serialize($instance), '"'), ':')
    ));
}

These custom functions provide viable options for converting stdClass objects to specific classes, allowing developers to extend the functionality of the provided storage system without compromising the desired class structure.

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