$this keyword and compact function

Question

In some contexts, we can use an array($this, 'variable') syntax, to refer to object properties. Why doesn't compact(array($this, 'variable')) work? Is there a way to work around this?

class someclass {

    $result = 'something';

    public function output() {
        compact($this->result); // $this is a OOP keyword and I don't know how to use it inside a compact() brackets
    }
}

I have found only one solution at the moment:

$result = $this->result;
compact('result');

But this is ugly.

Answer 1

I know this is old, but I wanted something like this for a project I'm working on. Thought I'd share the solution I came up with:

extract(get_object_vars($this));
return compact('result');

It scales rather nicely. For example:

<?php

class Thing {
    private $x, $y, $z;

    public function __construct($x, $y, $z) {
        $this->x = $x;
        $this->y = $y;
        $this->z = $z;
    }

    public function getXYZ() {
        extract(get_object_vars($this));
        return compact('x', 'y', 'z');
    }
}


$thing = new Thing(1, 2, 3);
print_r($thing->getXYZ());

Use with care.

Answer 2

Short answer: don't use compact(). In this situation, it's pointless (in most situations it's pointless, but that's another story). Instead, what's wrong with just returning an array?

return array('variable' => $this->variable);