How to get all values of an enum in PHP?

Question

PHP 8.1 is almost getting released, including support for Enumerations. I was testing some of the enum functionality and couldn't find much documentation about it. Hence my question: how do I get all values of an enum?

Answer 1

After some research I found the answer. You can use the static method: cases().

enum Status
{
    case PAID;
    case Cancelled;
}

Status::cases();

The cases method will return an array with an enum (UnitEnum interface) for each value.

Answer 2

For basic enums:

$suits = array_column(Suit::cases(), 'name');

For backed enums where you want the values:

$suits = array_column(Suit::cases(), 'value');

You could then do something like this:

trait EnumToArray
{

  public static function names(): array
  {
    return array_column(self::cases(), 'name');
  }

  public static function values(): array
  {
    return array_column(self::cases(), 'value');
  }

  public static function array(): array
  {
    return array_combine(self::values(), self::names());
  }

}

enum Suit: string
{

  use EnumToArray;

  case Hearts = 'H';
  case Diamonds = 'D';
  case Clubs = 'C';
  case Spades = 'S';

}

Suit::array() will return:

Array
(
    [H] => Hearts
    [D] => Diamonds
    [C] => Clubs
    [S] => Spades
)

Answer 3

Need the values and not Enum instances?

I've written a Composer package for this, othyn/php-enum-enhancements, as the UnitEnum::cases() method wasn't what I was looking for, as that returns an array of MySuperCoolEnum instances instead of the underlying values as their raw type, which is what I wanted.

Its a trait that can be easily added to any enum that does the following:

• Adds a new static UnitEnum::valueArray(): array method that returns all values within an Enum as an equally typed array of Enum values

• Adds a new static UnitEnum::valueList(string $separator = ', '): string method that returns all values within an Enum as a comma separated list string

In which produces the following for normal Enum's:

<?php

namespace App\Enums;

use Othyn\PhpEnumEnhancements\Traits\EnumEnhancements;

enum TestEnum
{
    use EnumEnhancements;

    case Alpha;
    case Bravo;
    case Charlie;
    case Delta;
    case Echo;
}

var_dump(TestEnum::valueArray());

// Results in the following being printed:
// array(5) {
//   [0]=>
//   string(5) "Alpha"
//   [1]=>
//   string(5) "Bravo"
//   [2]=>
//   string(7) "Charlie"
//   [3]=>
//   string(5) "Delta"
//   [4]=>
//   string(4) "Echo"
// }

var_dump(TestEnum::valueList());

// Results in the following being printed:
// string(34) "Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo"

var_dump(TestEnum::valueList(separator: ':'));

// Results in the following being printed:
// string(30) "Alpha:Bravo:Charlie:Delta:Echo"

... and the following for Backed Enum's, the following being a string example:

<?php

namespace App\Enums;

use Othyn\PhpEnumEnhancements\Traits\EnumEnhancements;

enum TestStringBackedEnum: string
{
    use EnumEnhancements;

    case Alpha   = 'alpha';
    case Bravo   = 'bravo';
    case Charlie = 'charlie';
    case Delta   = 'delta';
    case Echo    = 'echo';
}

var_dump(TestStringBackedEnum::valueArray());

// Results in the following being printed:
// array(5) {
//   [0]=>
//   string(5) "alpha"
//   [1]=>
//   string(5) "bravo"
//   [2]=>
//   string(7) "charlie"
//   [3]=>
//   string(5) "delta"
//   [4]=>
//   string(4) "echo"
// }

var_dump(TestStringBackedEnum::valueList());

// Results in the following being printed:
// string(34) "alpha, bravo, charlie, delta, echo"

var_dump(TestStringBackedEnum::valueList(separator: ':'));

// Results in the following being printed:
// string(30) "alpha:bravo:charlie:delta:echo"

... and yes it works on int's too!

There are more examples in the Usage part of the package's README.