Get Dot Notation Values with Caching.

dotnotation.php

<?php
/**
 * This class assumes it is in some kind of framework.
 * It has 'data' passed in, then the $this->var function will get data either in the $this->data object if $name is string
 * or it will return  from an object passed in.
 * It converts the object into an array and keeps a copy in cache for later use so the json_encode and json_decode is not called
 * multiple times. 
 */

class View {
  public __construct($data = null){
    $this->cache = [];
    $this->data = $data
  }
  public function var($name, $var = '', $default = '', $defaultOnEmpty = false){
        if(is_string($name)) {
            if(empty($this->{$name})) return $default;
            $object = $this->{$name};
            $hash = spl_object_hash($this->{$name});
        } else {
            if(empty($name)) return $default;
            $object = $name; 
            $hash = spl_object_hash($name);
        }

        if(empty($var)) return $object;

        if(!isset($this->cache[$hash])) $this->cache[$hash] = json_decode(json_encode($object), true);

        $object = $this->cache[$hash];

        $token = strtok($var, '.');

        while ($token !== false) {
            if (!isset($object[$token])) return $default;
            $object = $object[$token];
            $token = strtok('.');
        }

        if($defaultOnEmpty && empty($object)) return $default;
        return $object;
    }
}