oliverdavies.uk/content/node.c9ccd7f8-4727-49fa-9481-4507e7986fd9.yml

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title:
  - value: 'Why use Collections?'
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      <p>Yesterday, I wrote how to create <a href="/daily/2025/03/29/collections">dependency free Collection classes in PHP</a> (thanks to Dan Leech).</p>

      <p>I said that <a href="/blog/using-laravel-collections-drupal">I've written blog posts</a> and <a href="/presentations/using-illuminate-collections-outside-laravel">given talks</a> on using Collection classes.</p>

      <p>But why do I like Collections and why may you want to use them instead of native arrays?</p>

      <p>The first reason is that I can add extra functionality to Collections, because they're objects.</p>

      <p>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.</p>

      <p>I'll usually have an <code>AbstractCollection</code> that has the generic methods and is extended by specific Collection types with methods more specific methods.</p>

      <p>Having specific types of Collection objects also gives my code more context.</p>

      <p>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.</p>

      <p>This is also why I like value objects.</p>

      <p>Giving objects specific names instead of relying on the language's primitive types makes the code more robust and easier to read and understand.</p>

              
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      <p>Yesterday, I wrote how to create <a href="/daily/2025/03/29/collections">dependency free Collection classes in PHP</a> (thanks to Dan Leech).</p>

      <p>I said that <a href="/blog/using-laravel-collections-drupal">I've written blog posts</a> and <a href="/presentations/using-illuminate-collections-outside-laravel">given talks</a> on using Collection classes.</p>

      <p>But why do I like Collections and why may you want to use them instead of native arrays?</p>

      <p>The first reason is that I can add extra functionality to Collections, because they're objects.</p>

      <p>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.</p>

      <p>I'll usually have an <code>AbstractCollection</code> that has the generic methods and is extended by specific Collection types with methods more specific methods.</p>

      <p>Having specific types of Collection objects also gives my code more context.</p>

      <p>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.</p>

      <p>This is also why I like value objects.</p>

      <p>Giving objects specific names instead of relying on the language's primitive types makes the code more robust and easier to read and understand.</p>

              
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