Strange but true! Working with interfaces in PHP [message #185450] |
Mon, 31 March 2014 22:31 |
Mirco
Messages: 1 Registered: March 2014
Karma:
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Junior Member |
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I was working on a software of arbitrary complexity when I stumbled upon this strange behavior of the PHP compiler.
Problem:
I have these interfaces and classes:
interface IBaseA {
}
interface IA extends IBaseA {
}
interface IBaseB {
public function match( IBaseA $subject );
}
interface IB extends IBaseB{
}
class A implements IA{
}
class B implements IB{
public function match( IA $subject ){
echo "Am I working? o_O<hr>";
}
}
$a = new A();
$b = new B();
$b->match($a);
Running the above code, this is what I get:
Fatal error: Declaration of B::match() must be compatible with that of IBaseB::match()
This behavior is very odd, because A implements IA that extends from IBaseA. So IA is an interface of type IBaseA. Methods I will put in IBaseA will be also in IA.
Class B accepts, in the match() method, an instance of IA.
Class B extends from IBaseB that in turn accepts an instance of IBaseA.
B should accept IA. In fact the interface that B implements accepts a more specific version of IA, but the Fatal Error still pops up.
The things become more strange if we look at another example.
This one:
interface IBaseA {
}
interface IA extends IBaseA {
}
interface IBaseB {
public function match( IA $subject );
}
interface IB extends IBaseB{
}
class A implements IBaseA{
}
class B implements IB{
public function match( IA $subject ){
echo "Am I working? o_O<hr>";
}
}
$a = new A();
$b = new B();
$b->match($a);
Here, what I get it's not a Fatal Error, but a Catchable Fatal Error.
This is an error that could be catched by this simple function:
function myErrorHandler($errno, $errstr, $errfile, $errline) {
if ( E_RECOVERABLE_ERROR===$errno ) {
echo "'catched' catchable fatal error<br>";
return true;
}
return false;
}
set_error_handler('myErrorHandler');
This time though, the compiler should not let me continue with the execution because:
B implements IB that extends from IBaseB.
IBaseB accepts instances of IA.
IA extends from IBaseA.
A implements IBaseA.
What i'm passing to the match() method of B is an instance of A, that is more strict that IA.
The compiler should throw a Fatal Error and it shouldn't let me continue with the execution! The inner details of B's match() implementation require an instance of IA with its own specific methods that could not be provided by IA's father, IBaseA.
Would you please shed a light onto this one?
What do you think about it?
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