[10.x] Add a new Numberable helper

[caendesilva]

Abstract

Building on #48845, this class will work similarly to the Stringable class, but for numbers.

This was requested on the Discord and by several people on Twitter, and mentioned in #48849

Development

Feedback and contributions are much appreciated! I can be reached here, or in the #internals Discord.

• Add accessors for the Number class
• Add methods to interact with the value
• Add Number::of() and number() shorthands
• See if we can find a better name for this helper? (Numerable has been suggested)

[rmunate]

#48845 (comment)

[maartenpaauw]

Would be a great addition, but wouldn't it be better to make this class immutable like the stringable class?

[caendesilva]

Would be a great addition, but wouldn't it be better to make this class immutable like the stringable class?

Thanks for the feedback! It definitely could be, but I went this route because I personally think modifying the values is more helpful for the kinds of use cases I see for this feature being used. But I am 100% open to changing it to be immutable if that turns out to be the consensus on what's best.

[bert-w]

This makes every equation like ($x + 5)/3 unreadable when you write it in functional fluent mode Numberable($x)->add(5)->divide(3).

I would never use this, unless there's actually logic inside that would be worth abstractifying like vector or matrix math.

[caendesilva]

This makes every equation like ($x + 5)/3 unreadable when you write it in functional fluent mode Numberable($x)->add(5)->divide(3).

I would never use this, unless there's actually logic inside that would be worth abstractifying like vector or matrix math.

That's a great point, and a strong reason to use immutable versions. I'll make a patch tomorrow. Thanks for the feedback!

[Rizky92]

I'm not sure about this PR. Stringable works because there is a need for complex string manipulation fluently.

Your previous PR is great for converting unit of measurement or making numeric values readable, but not for manipulating it.

@bert-w's comments is a strong concern. Unless you provide another abstraction for working with arithmetics, I don't really see a good thing why this PR is necessary.

[caendesilva]

I'm not sure about this PR. Stringable works because there is a need for complex string manipulation fluently.

Your previous PR is great for converting unit of measurement or making numeric values readable, but not for manipulating it.

@bert-w's comments is a strong concern. Unless you provide another abstraction for working with arithmetics, I don't really see a good thing why this PR is necessary.

Good points as well! Thanks for all the feedback! Going to try to refine this tomorrow, then open up for review to see what the team thinks. I appreciate your thoughts!

[gocanto]

🤝 Sincere and humble question,

Did you evaluate the possibility to use Money/Money? - This lib is battle tested and offer this functionality out of the box.

cc @taylorotwell @driesvints

[caendesilva]

🤝 Sincere and humble question,

Did you evaluate the possibility to use Money/Money? - This lib is battle tested and offer this functionality out of the box.

cc @taylorotwell @driesvints

I haven't considered it for this feature, as I think these helpers are best used for quick formatting. If one needs something more robust, I think that's when you would reach for a library like yours. In my opinion, specialised code like that does not need to be in the Laravel core as we have packages to get the functionality when needed.

[taylorotwell]

I don't really think this is necessary yet. It's common to chain many string operations together when working with strings - I don't think the same is really the case with numbers.

[caendesilva]

I don't really think this is necessary yet. It's common to chain many string operations together when working with strings - I don't think the same is really the case with numbers.

Fair enough! It was requested by some people after my last PR, and it was fairly quick to make this one so I thought I'd throw it out there in case anyone finds it useful. Thanks for taking the time to review it!