Changing string representation of choices in a Symfony 2.6 form

Question

I'm using building a form type that uses a form field subscriber to render some of the form fields.

The subscriber returns form options for a given field. One of the options is "choices":

    $formOptions = [
        ...
        'choices' => $choices,
    ];

$choices are entities.
Consequently, they will be rendered in a form by means of __toString() of the objects.

The __toString() method would look something like:

public function __toString()
{
    return $this->getName();
}

However, I want the "choices" representation to be $name . $id (name concatenated with the object ID).
At the same time, I do not want to modify the object's __toString() method since I want a different string representation only in this one form field, and not all over the system.

What options do I have?
Do I have any granular control on how Symofny form fields display passed choices?

Answer 1

You can use the property option according to entity field documentation 2.6

$builder->add('users', 'entity', array(
    'class' => 'AcmeHelloBundle:User',
    'property' => 'customToString',
));

Just make sure that the property name matches the method name

    /**
     * @return string 
     * Here you print the attributes you need
     */
    public function customToString()
    {
        return sprintf(
            '%s,
            $this->$name . $this->$id,


        );
    }