This library provides a Record base class to build records with.

Install with

composer require withinboredom/records

The below example shows how to create a User class that contains several properties

use Withinboredom\Record;
use Withinboredom\Record\Attributes\ConstrainWith;

readonly class User extends Record {
	public string $name;
	public string $email;
	
	#[ConstrainWith(changeTogether: 'email')]
	#[ConstrainWith(changeTogether: 'name')]
	public int $id;
    
	public static function from(string $name, int $id, string $email): static {
		return self::fromArgs(name: $name, id: $id, email: $email);
	}
}

All you need to do is define a factory constructor, and the base class will handle the rest. Using it is relatively simple:

$user1 = User::from('Rob', 12, 'rob@example.com');
// later
$user2 = User::from('Rob', 12, 'rob@example.com');

assert($user1 === $user2); // true

$bob = $user1->with(name: 'Bob');

assert($user1 !== $bob); // true

$other = $bob->with(id: 42); // throws a LogicException

This library comes with a couple of attributes:

Prevents accidentally mutating a property with with(). This is useful when you are manually setting the identity and want to ensure the identity remains stable.

class Currency extends Record {
  public int $pennies;
  
  #[Immutable]
  public string $code;
  
  public function from(string $code, int $pennies): self {
    return self::fromArgs(code: $code, pennies: $pennies);
  }
}

This will prevent you from accidentally changing the code by doing $balance->with(code: 'EUR').

Requires a property changed with with() to also require other properties to be changed. Note that when we say "change" here, we do not mean the value, but it must be included together.

class Currency extends Record {
  public int $pennies;
  
  #[ConstrainWith('pennies')]
  public string $code;
  
  public function from(string $code, int $pennies): self {
    return self::fromArgs(code: $code, pennies: $pennies);
  }
}

$balance = Currency::from('USD', 42);
$transfer = $balance->with(code: 'EUR', pennies: 42); // constrain just requires it to be in the with(), not the value to change

There are several hooks you can use to either increase the performance or behaviour:

protected static function deriveIdentity(mixed ...$args): object|int|string|array

Overriding this method allows you to determine how an object’s identity is derived. The default implementation assumes you are creating a value object where the identity is the properties in the object. This may not always be the case, so this allows you to skip fields and generate a different equality.

protected static function create(mixed ...$args): static

Overriding this method allows you to change how objects are created when they do not already exist in the interned map. It is not recommended to change this.