note 86093 added to language.oop5.cloning

CLONED ARMIES? USE STATIC DATA

When I think of cloning, I always think of Star Wars "Cloned Army"... where the number of clones are in the hundreds of thousands. So far, I have only seen examples of one or two clones with either shallow, deep, or recursive references. My fix is to use the static keyword. With static, you choose the properties your objects share... and makes scaling up the number of so-called "clones" much easier.

<?php

class Soldier {
  public static $status;           // this is the property I'm trying to clone

  protected static $idCount = 0;   // used to increment ID numbers
  protected $id;                   // each Soldier will have a unique ID

  public function __construct() {
    $this->id = ++self::$idCount;
  }  

  public function issueCommand($task) {
    switch($task){
      case 'Deploy Troops': self::$status = 'deploying'; break;
      case 'March Forward': self::$status = 'marching forward'; break;
      case 'Fire!': self::$status = 'shot fired'; break;
      case 'Retreat!': self::$status = 'course reversed'; break;
      default: self::$status = 'at ease'; break;
    }
    echo 'COMMAND ISSUED: ' . $task . '<br>';
  }

  public function __toString() {
    return "Soldier[id=$this->id, status=" . self::$status . ']';
  }
}

# create the General and the Cloned Army
$general = new Soldier();
$platoon = array();
  for($i = 0; $i < 250; $i++) $platoon[] = new Soldier();

# issue commands, then check what soldiers are doing
$general->issueCommand('Deploy Troops');
echo $general . '<br>';
echo $platoon[223] . '<br>';
echo $platoon[12] . '<br>';

$general->issueCommand('March Forward');
echo $platoon[47] . '<br>';
echo $platoon[163] . '<br>';

$general->issueCommand('Fire!');
echo $platoon[248] . '<br>';
echo $platoon[68] . '<br>';

$general->issueCommand('Retreat!');
echo $platoon[26] . '<br>';
echo $platoon[197] . '<br>';
?>

COMMAND ISSUED: Deploy Troops
  Soldier[id=1, status=deploying]
  Soldier[id=225, status=deploying]
  Soldier[id=14, status=deploying]

COMMAND ISSUED: March Forward
  Soldier[id=49, status=marching forward]
  Soldier[id=165, status=marching forward]

COMMAND ISSUED: Fire!
  Soldier[id=250, status=shot fired]
  Soldier[id=70, status=shot fired]

COMMAND ISSUED: Retreat!
  Soldier[id=28, status=course reversed]
  Soldier[id=199, status=course reversed]
----
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Probable Submitter: 67.150.15.147
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Manual Page -- http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.cloning.php
Edit        -- https://master.php.net/note/edit/86093
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