Type Casting

Automatic conversion between PHP types and database values.

Table of contents

• Overview
• Read (Database → PHP)
• Write (PHP → Database)
• Built-in Type Converters
  • ScalarConverter
  • DateTimeConverter
  • EnumConverter
• Custom Type Converter
  • Registering a custom converter
  • Using the custom registry

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Overview

Rowcast automatically casts database values to the PHP types declared on your DTO properties, and converts PHP values back to database-compatible formats on write.

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Read (Database → PHP)

Database value	PHP property type	Result
"42"	int	42
"3.14"	float	3.14
"1" / "0"	bool	true / false
42	string	"42"
"2025-06-15 10:30:00"	DateTimeImmutable	DateTimeImmutable object
"2025-06-15 10:30:00"	DateTimeInterface	DateTimeImmutable object
"2025-06-15 10:30:00"	DateTime	DateTime object
"active"	UserStatus (BackedEnum)	UserStatus::Active
NULL	?int, ?string, etc.	null

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Write (PHP → Database)

PHP value	Database value
true / false	1 / 0
DateTimeInterface	"Y-m-d H:i:s" string
BackedEnum	Backing value (int/string)
null	NULL
Scalars	Passed through as-is

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Built-in Type Converters

ScalarConverter

Handles int, float, bool, and string conversions:

// Database "42" → PHP int 42
// Database "3.14" → PHP float 3.14
// Database "1" → PHP bool true
// Database 42 → PHP string "42"

DateTimeConverter

Handles DateTime, DateTimeImmutable, and DateTimeInterface:

class Post
{
    public int $id;
    public string $title;
    public DateTimeImmutable $createdAt;
    public DateTime $updatedAt;
}

// Read: "2025-06-15 10:30:00" → DateTimeImmutable object
// Write: DateTimeImmutable → "2025-06-15 10:30:00"

When the property type is DateTimeInterface, the value is always resolved to DateTimeImmutable.

EnumConverter

Handles any BackedEnum:

enum Status: string
{
    case Active = 'active';
    case Inactive = 'inactive';
    case Banned = 'banned';
}

class UserDto
{
    public int $id;
    public Status $status;
    public ?Status $previousStatus;  // nullable enums supported
}

// Read: "active" → Status::Active
// Write: Status::Active → "active"

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Custom Type Converter

Implement TypeConverterInterface to support additional types:

use AsceticSoft\Rowcast\TypeConverter\TypeConverterInterface;

class UuidConverter implements TypeConverterInterface
{
    public function supports(string $phpType): bool
    {
        return $phpType === Uuid::class;
    }

    public function toPhp(mixed $value, string $phpType): Uuid
    {
        return new Uuid((string) $value);
    }

    public function toDb(mixed $value): mixed
    {
        return (string) $value;
    }
}

Registering a custom converter

use AsceticSoft\Rowcast\TypeConverter\TypeConverterRegistry;

$registry = TypeConverterRegistry::defaults();
$registry->add(new UuidConverter());

Using the custom registry

Pass the registry directly to DataMapper:

use AsceticSoft\Rowcast\DataMapper;

$mapper = new DataMapper($connection, typeConverter: $registry);

The TypeConverterRegistry::defaults() method returns a registry with all built-in converters pre-registered. Use add() to extend it with your own.