Which is the better approach to initialize php properties?

Question

Here are two way to initialize class variables.

1st Method

class Test {
    private $var1;
    private $var2;

    public function Test($var1,$var1) {
        $this->var1 = $var1;
        $this->var2 = $var2;
    }
}
$objTest = new Test("value1","value2");

2nd Method

class Test {
    private $var1;
    private $var2;

    public function _set($var, $value) {
        $this->$$var = $value
    }
}
$objTest = new Test();
$objTest->_set('var1','value1');
$objTest->_set('var2','value2');

Now, these both methods are valid, but I would like to know which one in better in what conditions? What are pros and cons of sticking with one method only?

Answer 1

In your example, the second method is highly risky. If you give the variable name as an argument, you basically give the code the access to set all private variables from outside the class. What is the point of having private variables if you allow them to be set freely like that?

Additionally, the point of encapsulation in OOP, is that the inner workings of a class are not transparent to the code outside the class. Your second method breaks this encapsulation and thus part of the point of OOP, as the code outside the class has to be aware of the inner workings of the class, like the name of the variables. What happens if you later choose to change the variable names? All the code breaks. If they were accessed via setters/getters, old functions could be changed to reflect changes inside the class, but code outside the class would be difficult to change. In addition to that, the second method makes the validation of the values hard.

You should use the first method, especially if setting the class variables is necessary for operation. However, if you feel that some default values can be allowed for the attributes, you can just take advantage of PHP's default argument values like:

class Test {
    private $var1;
    private $var2;

    public function Test($var1 = 'defaultValue', $var1 = 'defaultValue') {
        $this->var1 = $var1;
        $this->var2 = $var2;
    }
}
$objTest = new Test();

Anyway, if the values must be initialized by the code, then you should definitely force them to be passed in the constructor. If default values are allowed, then either initialize the values in constructor with separate setters for the variables or just default argument values like in the provided example. It is, however, bad practice to expect the code to set critical values via setters after the constructor has been called.