PHP string Class

Creates a class that acts as a string wrapper similar to Java and C#.

Background

Php doesn't do types so I created a class to act as a wrapper to provide a faux type for strings

The Code

The code is designed so that you can create text variables which have there own methods that you can apply on them in a fashion similar to Java or C#.

PHP:

<?php
    
class Text
{
    private $text;

    public function __construct($val = null)
    {
        if($val != "" || $val != null)
        {
            $this->text = $val;
        }
        else
        {
            $this->text = "";
        }
    }

    public function equals($val)
    {
       return (($this->text == $val) ? true : false);
    }

    public function value()
    {
        return $this->text;
    }

    public function clear()
    {
        $this->text = "";
    }

    public function assign($val)
    {
        $this->text = $val;
    }

    public function length()
    {
        $rtn = strlen($this->text);
        return $rtn;
    }

    public function upperCase($type = "all")
    {
        $type = strtolower($type);

        switch($type)
        {
            case "first":
                $this->text = ucfirst($this->text);
            break;

            case "words":
                $this->text = ucwords($this->text);
            break;

            case "all":
                $this->text = strtoupper($this->text);
            break;

            default:
                $this->text = strtoupper($this->text);
            break;
        } 
    }

    public function lowerCase($type = "all")
    {
        $type = strtolower($type);

        switch($type)
        {
            case "first":
                $this->text = lcfirst($this->text);
            break;

            case "all":
                $this->text = strtolower($this->text);
            break;

            default:
                $this->text = strtolower($this->text);
            break;
        }
    }

    public function reverse($words = TRUE, $sep = ' ')
    {
        $tmp;

        if($words == TRUE)
        {
            $tmp = explode($sep, $this->text);
            $tmp = array_reverse($tmp);
            $this->text = implode($sep, $tmp);
        }
        else if($words == FALSE)
        {
            $this->text = strrev($this->text);
        }
        else
        {
            $this->text = strrev($this->text);
        }
    }

    public function combine($txt)
    {
        $this->text = $this->text . $txt;
    }

    public function contains($txt)
    {
        $p = strpos($this->text,$txt);
        $rtn = FALSE;

        if($p === FALSE)
        {
            $rtn = FALSE;
        }
        else
        {
            $rtn = TRUE;
        }

        return $rtn;
    }

    public function chunk($start,$end)
    {
        $rtn = "";

        if(!is_numeric($start) && !is_numeric($end))
        {
            $rtn = "";
        }
        else
        {
            $rtn = substr($this->text,$start,$end);
        }

        return $rtn;
    }

    public function replace($searchTxt, $replacement)
    {
        $this->text = str_replace($searchTxt, $replacement, $this->text);
    }

    public function characters($len = 0)
    {
        $rtn;

        if($len > 0)
        {
            $rtn = str_split($this->text,$len);
        }
        else
        {
            $rtn = str_split($this->text);
        }

        return $rtn;
    }
    public function slim($chars = null)
    {
        if(is_null($chars) || $chars != "")
        {
           $this->text = trim($this->text);
        }
        else
        {
            $this->text = trim($this->text,$chars);
        }
    }
}

?>

References

Java and C#