As similar thing [to Javascript object literals] can be done in PHP using anonymous functions (since 5.3) [...] Since version 5.3 Php added support for closures and that feature has been used above to create javascript style object literals. The use(&$a) expression makes the variable $a available inside the function happy.

Code snippets are included showing how to create these objects via the use of closures and a little trickery with call_user_func_array and __call to make assigning properties easier.

Bearing in mind that in the first article of the series I illustrated how to use an interpreter class to handle a group of fictional users, in this tutorial I'm going to go teach you how to utilize this pattern for manipulating a set of string processing classes.

They start with a method (well, class really) of handling the strings themselves - a StringSaver class - that can write the information out to a file. On top of this, they create the Interpreter class, defining the different bits of functionality that can be performed on the string (uppercase, lowercase, etc). Finally, they combine the two in a simple example that applies the different interpretations to the given string.