Python style named parameters

[oddz]

Is this a decent way to achieve it? I'm not really a huge fan of eval() but it seems to be working well. Are there any possible problems with this solution potentially with long strings that span multiple lines perhaps?

function dictionaryToArrray() {
    
    $args = func_get_args();
    
    if(empty($args)) {
        return array();
    } else {
        eval('$properties = array('.rtrim(preg_replace('/(.*?):(\".*?\"|[0-9.]*?)(;|$)/s','\'$1\'=>$2,',implode(';',$args)),',').');');
        return $properties;
        
    }

}

echo '<pre>',print_r(dictionaryToArrray('a:"My String"','b:45','c:"Some other info"','d:6.4')),'</pre>'; 

Array
(
    [a] => My String
    [b] => 45
    [c] => Some other info
    [d] => 6.4
)

[Dan Grossman]

What's the purpose of this? Where does that list of arguments come from?

$dictionary = <<<EOD
'a:"My String"','b:45','c:"Some other info"','d:6.4'
EOD;

$parts = split(",", $dictionary);

foreach ($parts as $part) {

  $pieces = split(":", substr($part, 1, strlen($part) - 2));

  $array[$pieces[0]] = $pieces[1];

}

echo "<pre>" . print_r($array,1) . "</pre>"; 

Array
(
    [a] => "My String"
    [b] => 45
    [c] => "Some other info"
    [d] => 6.4
)

[crmalibu]

Looks like a place where json_decode() could be useful.

[oddz]

This seems more concrete:

function dictionaryToArrray() {
    
    $args = func_get_args();    
    $str = '';
    
    foreach($args as $arg) {
        $pos = strpos($arg,':');
        if($pos!==false) $str.= '\''.substr($arg,0,$pos).'\'=>'.substr($arg,($pos+1)).',';
    }
    
    eval('$properties = array('.rtrim($str,',').');');
    return $properties;

}

echo '<pre>',print_r(dictionaryToArrray('a:"My String"','b:45','c:"Some other info"','d:6.4')),'</pre>'; 

Its going to be used to fill a ActiveRecord object.

$record = new BlogEntry('title:"my title"','weight:0','user_id:2'); 

vs. (standard way)

$record = new BlogEntry(array('title'=>'my title','weight'=>0,'user_id'=>2)) 

[logic_earth]

What about: func( 'title', 'my title', 'weight', 0, 'user_id', 2 ) Also known as a strided list
Its what is used extensively in SecondLife LSL. http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/List#Strided_lists

[oddz]

You think that is easier to read? The only reason why I'm doing this is that it can get annoying to pass arrays. I think the "python" like dictionary syntax is much nicer to write am I mistaken? Either way passing the array is the standard way I was just looking to create a alternative.

[AnthonySterling]

Oddz, what advantages does using this alternate syntax introduce?

Surely, the developers using your library would be PHP literate already and comfortable passing an array of values?

I'm intrigued.