Initialize Objects like arrays in PHP?

I also up-voted Gumbo as the preferred solution but what he suggested is not exactly what was asked, which may lead to some confusion as to why member1o looks more like a member1a.

To ensure this is clear now, the two ways (now 3 ways since 5.4) to produce the same stdClass in php.

1. As per the question's long or manual approach:

   $object = new stdClass;
   $object->member1 = "hello, I'm 1";
   $object->member1o = new stdClass;
   $object->member1o->member1 = "hello, I'm 1o.1";
   $object->member2 = "hello, I'm 2";
   

2. The shorter or single line version (expanded here for clarity) to cast an object from an array, ala Gumbo's suggestion.

   $object = (object)array(
        'member1' => "hello, I'm 1",
        'member1o' => (object)array(
            'member1' => "hello, I'm 1o.1",
        ),
        'member2' => "hello, I'm 2",
   );
   

3. PHP 5.4+ Shortened array declaration style

   $object = (object)[
        'member1' => "hello, I'm 1",
        'member1o' => (object)['member1' => "hello, I'm 1o.1"],
        'member2' => "hello, I'm 2",
   ];
   

Will both produce exactly the same result:

stdClass Object
(
    [member1] => hello, I'm 1
    [member1o] => stdClass Object
        (
            [member1] => hello, I'm 1o.1
        )

    [member2] => hello, I'm 2
)

nJoy!

From a (post) showing both type casting and using a recursive function to convert single and multi-dimensional arrays to a standard object:

<?php
function arrayToObject($array) {
    if (!is_array($array)) {
        return $array;
    }
  
    $object = new stdClass();
    if (is_array($array) && count($array) > 0) {
        foreach ($array as $name=>$value) {
            $name = strtolower(trim($name));
            if (!empty($name)) {
                $object->$name = arrayToObject($value);
            }
        }
        return $object;
    }
    else {
        return FALSE;
    }
}

Essentially you construct a function that accepts an $array and iterates over all its keys and values. It assigns the values to class properties using the keys.

If a value is an array, you call the function again (recursively), and assign its output as the value.

The example function above does exactly that; however, the logic is probably ordered a bit differently than you'd naturally think about the process.

You can use type casting:

$object = (object) array("name" => "member 1", array("name" => "member 1.1") );