How do I fix the PHP Strict error “Creating default object from empty value”?

Question

I have the following PHP5 code:

$request = NULL;
$request->{"header"}->{"sessionid"}        =  $_SESSION['testSession'];
$request->{"header"}->{"type"}             =  "request";

Lines 2 and 3 are producing the following error:

PHP Strict standards: Creating default object from empty value

How can I fix this error?

Answer 1

Null isn't an object, so you can't assign values to it. From what you are doing it looks like you need an associative array. If you are dead set on using objects, you could use the stdClass

//using arrays
$request = array();
$request["header"]["sessionid"]        =  $_SESSION['testSession'];
$request["header"]["type"]             =  "request";

//using stdClass
$request = new stdClass();
$request->header = new stdClass();
$request->header->sessionid        =  $_SESSION['testSession'];
$request->header->type             =  "request";

I would recommend using arrays, as it is a neater syntax with (probably) the same underlying implementation.

Answer 2

Get rid of $request = NULL and replace with:

$request = new stdClass;
$request->header = new stdClass;

You are trying to write to NULL instead of an actual object.

Answer 3

To suppress the error:

error_reporting(0);

To fix the error:

$request = new stdClass();

hth

Answer 4

Don't try to set attributes on a null value? Use an associative array instead.