What does cast() do in sql\mapper fatfree?

Question

I came across this code snippet and confused with the cast() function? What does it do?

    $userModel = new UserModel();
    $record = $userModel->findone(array('id=?', $uid));
    $f3->set('SESSION.deleteUser', $uid);
    $f3->set('user', $record->cast());
    $f3->set('content', 'user/delete.php');
    $template = new \View;
    echo $template->render('dashboard/layout.php');

Answer 1

It converts (aka "casts") a Mapper object into an associative array.

Before casting:

$userModel->load(['id=?',123]);
echo $userModel->id; // 123
echo $userModel->name; // John Doe
echo $userModel->country; // Botswana
print_r($userModel); // List of object properties (including inherited)

After casting:

print_r($userModel->cast());
/*
Array
(
    [id] => 123
    [name] => John Doe
    [country] => Botswana
 )
*/

Casting is useful when you want to pass a read-only copy of a mapper to a template (aka "separation of concerns"). It also helps reducing memory usage when loading a big number of records.