index for non-relation queries

For many-to-many relations, there is CHasManyRelation::$index, which lets you define which column-value becomes the key in the returned array.

How come there is no equivalent feature for models in general?

Currently, I have to override CActiveRecord::findAll() for every model an re-index the returned results…

Here’s what my extension method looks like:





class GActiveRecord extends CActiveRecord

{

  /**

   * @param mixed $index attribute name for array index - or true, to indexed the returned array by primary key

   * @see CActiveRecord::findAll()

   */

  public function findAll($condition='', $params=array(), $index=null)

  {

    if ($index===null)

      $index = isset($this->indexBy) ? $this->indexBy : false;

    

    if ($index===false)

      return parent::findAll($condition, $params);

    if ($index===true)

      $index = $this->getTableSchema()->primaryKey;

    

    $models = array();

    foreach (parent::findAll($condition, $params) as $model)

      $models[$model->$index] = $model;

    return $models;

  }



Now, if the model declares a public $indexBy with the attribute name, the models will be reindexed before they’re returned.

Setting $indexBy to true will re-index by primary key - setting it to an attribute-name will re-index by that attribute.

So you define the convention in your model, but you can override it with the $index parameter in the method, which defaults to null, meaning use the model convention - setting it to false means don’t re-index.