37 lines
1.6 KiB
Markdown
37 lines
1.6 KiB
Markdown
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---
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title: Why use Collections?
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date: 2025-03-30
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permalink: daily/2025/03/30/why-collections
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tags:
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- software-development
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- php
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- collections
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cta: ~
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snippet: |
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Why should you use Collection objects in PHP?
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---
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Yesterday, I wrote how to create [dependency free Collection classes in PHP][0] (thanks to Dan Leech).
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I said that [I've written blog posts][1] and [given talks][2] on using Collection classes.
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But why do I like Collections and why may you want to use them instead of native arrays?
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The first reason is that I can add extra functionality to Collections, because they're objects.
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Whether it's a generic action such as filtering or sorting the items, or something more specific like returning a list of station codes from a collection of train stations, this can be added to specific collection classes.
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I'll usually have an `AbstractCollection` that has the generic methods and is extended by specific Collection types with methods more specific methods.
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Having specific types of Collection objects also gives my code more context.
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Instead of an array that could contain anything, by reading the code and seeing which Collection types are used, I know what the collection contains and what I can do with it.
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This is also why I like value objects.
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Giving objects specific names instead of relying on the language's primitive types makes the code more robust and easier to read and understand.
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[0]: {{site.url}}/daily/2025/03/29/collections
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[1]: {{site.url}}/blog/using-laravel-collections-drupal
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[2]: {{site.url}}/presentations/using-illuminate-collections-outside-laravel
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