Accessing And Mutating Values

Reading Values

echo $config->get('database.host', '127.0.0.1');

if ($config->has('app.env')) {
    echo $config->get('app.env');
}

When a key points to an associative subtree, get() returns another ArrayConfig instance. This is helpful when you want to keep working with the subtree as configuration instead of converting it immediately.

$database = $config->get('database');

echo $database->get('host');
print_r($database->toArray());

Sequential lists remain plain PHP arrays:

$hosts = $config->get('cluster.hosts', []);

foreach ($hosts as $host) {
    echo $host . PHP_EOL;
}

Writing And Merging Values

You can set one key at a time, merge an array, or merge another config object.

$config->set('database.host', 'db.internal');

$config->set([
    'database.port' => 3306,
    'app.locale' => 'en_US',
]);

$config->set($otherConfig);

Later writes override earlier values for the same key while preserving unrelated nested values.

Removing Values

$config->remove('database.password');

if (! $config->has('database.password')) {
    echo 'Password removed';
}

Exporting And Iterating

toArray() exports the whole nested structure:

print_r($config->toArray());

Iteration is flattened into dot-notated leaf keys, which is convenient for debugging and inspection:

foreach ($config as $key => $value) {
    echo $key . '=' . json_encode($value) . PHP_EOL;
}

Array Access

Config objects also implement ArrayAccess :

$config['app.name'] = 'Renamed App';

echo $config['app.name'];
unset($config['app.name']);

Good To Know

• get() with a missing key returns your default value instead of failing.
• get('some.branch') may return another config object, not always a plain array.
• toArray() is the right choice when another library expects a regular PHP array.