06-array-access.md

ArrayAccess & Interfaces

DotArray implements ArrayAccess, Countable, IteratorAggregate and JsonSerializable.

ArrayAccess

Array syntax maps directly to the methods, paths and wildcards included:

Syntax	Same as
$dot['user.name']	$dot->get('user.name')
$dot['user.name'] = 'Raggi'	$dot->set('user.name', 'Raggi')
$dot[] = 'value'	Appends to the root array.
isset($dot['user.name'])	$dot->has('user.name')
unset($dot['user.name'])	$dot->delete('user.name')

$dot = dot();

$dot['user.name'] = 'Raggi';
$dot['user.email'] = null;
$dot[] = 'appended';

$dot['user.name'];            // "Raggi"
isset($dot['user.email']);    // true (null still exists)
$dot['users.*.name'];         // null (no users yet)

unset($dot['user.name']);

:::info isset() and null Unlike a plain array, isset($dot['user.email']) is true when the value is null, because it uses has(). :::

Countable

count($dot) counts the top-level items. $dot->count($path) counts the items at a path, and is 0 when the path is missing or not an array:

$dot = dot(['users' => [['name' => 'A'], ['name' => 'B']], 'title' => 'x']);

count($dot);                   // 2
$dot->count('users');          // 2
$dot->count('users.*.name');   // 2
$dot->count('title');          // 0

Iteration

foreach walks the top-level items:

foreach (dot(['a' => 1, 'b' => 2]) as $key => $value) {
    echo "$key=$value ";   // a=1 b=2
}

JSON

toJson() encodes the whole array, or the value at a path, with optional json_encode() flags. json_encode($dot) gives the same result as toJson():

$dot = dot(['user' => ['name' => 'Raggi', 'url' => 'https://pharaonic.dev']]);

$dot->toJson();                                 // the whole array
$dot->toJson('user.name');                      // '"Raggi"'
$dot->toJson('user', JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES);   // '{"name":"Raggi","url":"https://pharaonic.dev"}'
json_encode($dot);                              // same as toJson()

When encoding fails, toJson() returns an empty string. Pass JSON_THROW_ON_ERROR to get a JsonException instead.