PHP - Indirect modification of overloaded property

All you need to do is add "&" in front of your __get function to pass it as reference:

public function &__get ( $index )

Struggled with this one for a while.

Nice you gave me something to play around with

Run

class Sample extends Creator {

}

$a = new Sample ();
$a->role->rolename = 'test';
echo  $a->role->rolename , PHP_EOL;
$a->role->rolename->am->love->php = 'w00';
echo  $a->role->rolename  , PHP_EOL;
echo  $a->role->rolename->am->love->php   , PHP_EOL;

Output

test
test
w00

Class Used

abstract class Creator {
    public function __get($name) {
        if (! isset ( $this->{$name} )) {
            $this->{$name} = new Value ( $name, null );
        }
        return $this->{$name};
    }

    public function __set($name, $value) {
        $this->{$name} = new Value ( $name, $value );
    }



}

class Value extends Creator {
    private $name;
    private $value;
    function __construct($name, $value) {
        $this->name = $name;
        $this->value = $value;
    }

    function __toString()
    {
        return (string) $this->value ;
    }
}      

Edit : New Array Support as requested

class Sample extends Creator {

}

$a = new Sample ();
$a->role = array (
        "A",
        "B",
        "C" 
);


$a->role[0]->nice = "OK" ;

print ($a->role[0]->nice  . PHP_EOL);

$a->role[1]->nice->ok = array("foo","bar","die");

print ($a->role[1]->nice->ok[2]  . PHP_EOL);


$a->role[2]->nice->raw = new stdClass();
$a->role[2]->nice->raw->name = "baba" ;

print ($a->role[2]->nice->raw->name. PHP_EOL);

Output

 Ok die baba

Modified Class

abstract class Creator {
    public function __get($name) {
        if (! isset ( $this->{$name} )) {
            $this->{$name} = new Value ( $name, null );
        }
        return $this->{$name};
    }

    public function __set($name, $value) {
        if (is_array ( $value )) {
            array_walk ( $value, function (&$item, $key) {
                $item = new Value ( $key, $item );
            } );
        }
        $this->{$name} = $value;

    }

}

class Value {
    private $name ;
    function __construct($name, $value) {
        $this->{$name} = $value;
        $this->name = $value ;
    }

    public function __get($name) {
        if (! isset ( $this->{$name} )) {
            $this->{$name} = new Value ( $name, null );
        }

        if ($name == $this->name) {
            return $this->value;
        }

        return $this->{$name};
    }

    public function __set($name, $value) {
        if (is_array ( $value )) {
            array_walk ( $value, function (&$item, $key) {
                $item = new Value ( $key, $item );
            } );
        }
        $this->{$name} = $value;
    }

    public function __toString() {
        return (string) $this->name ;
    }   
}

I've had this same error, without your whole code it is difficult to pinpoint exactly how to fix it but it is caused by not having a __set function.

The way that I have gotten around it in the past is I have done things like this:

$user = createUser();
$role = $user->role;
$role->rolename = 'Test';

now if you do this:

echo $user->role->rolename;

you should see 'Test'

Though I am very late in this discussion, I thought this may be useful for some one in future.

I had faced similar situation. The easiest workaround for those who doesn't mind unsetting and resetting the variable is to do so. I am pretty sure the reason why this is not working is clear from the other answers and from the php.net manual. The simplest workaround worked for me is

Assumption:

1. $object is the object with overloaded __get and __set from the base class, which I am not in the freedom to modify.
2. shippingData is the array I want to modify a field of for e.g. :- phone_number

// First store the array in a local variable.
$tempShippingData = $object->shippingData;

unset($object->shippingData);

$tempShippingData['phone_number'] = '888-666-0000' // what ever the value you want to set

$object->shippingData = $tempShippingData; // this will again call the __set and set the array variable

unset($tempShippingData);

Note: this solution is one of the quick workaround possible to solve the problem and get the variable copied. If the array is too humungous, it may be good to force rewrite the __get method to return a reference rather expensive copying of big arrays.