Add daily email for 30/03/25

Why use Collections?

source/_daily_emails/2025-03-30.md

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+---
+title: Why use Collections?
+date: 2025-03-30
+permalink: daily/2025/03/30/why-collections
+tags:
+  - software-development
+  - php
+  - collections
+cta: ~
+snippet: |
+  Why should you use Collection objects in PHP?
+---
+
+Yesterday, I wrote how to create [dependency free Collection classes in PHP][0] (thanks to Dan Leech).
+
+I said that [I've written blog posts][1] and [given talks][2] on using Collection classes.
+
+But why do I like Collections and why may you want to use them instead of native arrays?
+
+The first reason is that I can add extra functionality to Collections, because they're objects.
+
+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.
+
+I'll usually have an `AbstractCollection` that has the generic methods and is extended by specific Collection types with methods more specific methods.
+
+Having specific types of Collection objects also gives my code more context.
+
+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.
+
+This is also why I like value objects.
+
+Giving objects specific names instead of relying on the language's primitive types makes the code more robust and easier to read and understand.
+
+[0]: {{site.url}}/daily/2025/03/29/collections
+[1]: {{site.url}}/blog/using-laravel-collections-drupal
+[2]: {{site.url}}/presentations/using-illuminate-collections-outside-laravel