Entity
An entity is a "thing" you want to represent in a database or other data storages. It can be a new article on your blog, a user in your message board or a permission in your rights management system.
The properties of an entity object is a representation of the data. Entities usually also carry business logic.
Set values
The setValues()
methods is a a helper function for setting all the properties from an array and works like a
fluent interface.
$foo = new Foo();
$foo->setValues(['red' => 10, 'green' => 20, 'blue' => 30])->doSomething();
Instantiation
Using the new
keyword is reserved for creating a new entity.
When the data of an entity is fetched, the __set_state()
method is used to create the entity. This method sets the
properties of the entity object before calling the constructor.