PHP Magic methods to use property as array or string

Question

I have some property $abc (type array) in object:

$this->abc = array(
    'id' => 123,
    'status' => 'close'
);

There is some solution to using this property as array or string? Like that:

echo $this->abc; // return first element of array: 123
echo $this->abc['status']; // return element by key: close

Maybe getter and setter or Reflection?

EDIT:
I prepare some like this, but all returns id value:

class Test {

    private $abc;

    public function __construct() {
        $this->abc = array(
            'id' => '123',
            'status' => 'close'
        );
    }

    public function __get($key) {
        if ($key === 'abc') {
            echo $this->abc['id'];
        }
    }
}

$t = new Test();

echo $t->abc['id']; // return 123 - correct!
echo $t->abc['status']; // return 123 - incorrect, should be return 'close' string
echo $t->abc; // return 123 - correct

Any suggestion?

Answer 1

Actually you can't do exactly what your example shows.

Magic methods (what a silly name, btw) simply allow you to get and set properties, so that some_object->a can be handled with custom code, but you cannot tell PHP to handle
some_object->a and some_object->a[0] differently.

You are free to have your custom getter return an int, an array or an elephant, but that's it.

EDIT: Your code does nothing but print abc['id'] each time the property is referenced.

abc is still handled as any plain old property.

Let's replace echo with return

public function __get($key) {
    if ($key === 'abc') {
        return$this->abc['id'];
    }
}

Now whenever you reference abc, the getter gives you "123".
Demonstration:

echo $t->abc['id'];     // 'id' evaluates to 0, so result is "1" ("123"[0])
echo $t->abc['status']; // same thing
echo $t->abc;           // "123" - correct (of sorts)
echo $t->abc[1];        // "2" (2nd character of "123")

You are also free do do stupid things like that:

class fairytale {
    private static $handsome =
        array ("Prince Valliant", "Superman", "Flash Gordon");
    private static $ugly     = 
        array ("Michael Moore", "Condoleezza Rice", "Ronald McDonald");

    function __get ($prop)
    {
        if ($prop=='frog')
            return self::$handsome;
        if (preg_match ('/^frog\\[([0-9]*)\\]$/', $prop, $res))
            return self::$ugly[$res[1]];
    }
}

function kiss ($prince)
{
    echo "$prince appears in a puff of smoke...\n";
}

$pond = new fairytale();
$frog1 = $pond->frog[0]; // <-- array subscript parsed before getter is called
$frog2 = 'frog[0]';
$frog2 = $pond->$frog2;  // <-- array subscript parsed inside getter

kiss ($frog1);
kiss ($frog2); // <--- surprise!

As a side note, abusing custom getters/setters to turn frogs into princes might be a lot of fun and a fine display of PHP expertise, but it's unlikely to produce readable and maintainable code.
Just my opinion, of course.