Calling a method as an argument

PHP
1

Is it possible to use the return value of a method as an argument of a function?
Like the method “format()” below:

echo htmlspecialchars($joke['jokedate']->format('jS F Y'),ENT_QUOTES,'UTF-8');

If not, please say why, TYIA.
P.S: I tried it and currently gives this error: Error: Call to a member function format() on string…

2

Looking at that, $joke is an array.
format() is a method belonging to a class.
The entry in the $joke array with the index jokedate is an object of the same class that format() belongs to.
Is that all correct?

I guess not, I think jokedate is a string, not an object. But you are trying to call a function on that string as if it were an object with the format() method in its class.

3 Likes
3

This will work as expected:

$joke = ['jokedate' => new DateTime('now')];

echo htmlspecialchars($joke['jokedate']->format('jS F Y'),ENT_QUOTES,'UTF-8');

As @SamA74 pointed out, most likely your $joke[‘jokedate’] is a string and not a DateTime object.

2 Likes
4

Yes, I forgot the point that most values in MySQL are typed as strings. Dates are also the same. Thanks to both of you.

5

Dates can be objects, though the date data may often start life as a string, either pulled form a database or coming from form data.

1 Like
6

Aha, thanks, so… If I get it right, then I’m going to ask this: In what example scenario might it really be initiated using a Date literal and not using a string?

7

Just like the example from @ahundiak:-

That creates a datetime object, then the function will work.

2 Likes
8

So if you want to use dates from the database as objects then you need to convert them to objects. It’s actually very simple:

// let's assume $joke['jokedate'] contains
// date string from db like '2018-02-18':
$joke['jokedate'] = new DateTime($joke['jokedate']);
echo htmlspecialchars($joke['jokedate']->format('jS F Y'),ENT_QUOTES,'UTF-8');
3 Likes
9

No doubt the date format will be used in more than one place and will change so I would create a function:

//==============================================
// Usage:
// echo sPrettyDate ();
// echo sPrettyDate ( FALSE, TRUE);
// echo sPrettyDate (FALSE, FALSE, 'Good morning');
//==============================================
function sPrettyDate( $date=FALSE, $long=FALSE, $msg="")
:string
{
$date = $date ?? time();

$result = 'default short date format';

if($long):
  $result = 'long date format';
endif;

$result .= $msg;

return $result;
}//

Edit:
Beware - Typed on a tablet and not tried.

1 Like
10

I don’t understand it yet :blush: but thanks for taking the time.

11

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