How to use fields selector?

[Manaus]

Hello, I don't grasp the use of a selector like

$fields->get("name")

or

$fields->find("selector")

I see in the cheatsheet, since when I need to print a custom field from the page I just need to write

$page->mycustomfield

or similar.

How can I use the $fields object?

Thanks!

[kongondo]

46 minutes ago, Manaus said:

How can I use the $fields object?

There's lots of use cases mainly related to module development as well as internal ProcessWire use. You can also use it (with caution) for housekeeping. Let's say you created a number of fields for testing purposes on a site or module you are working on. You gave your fields a specific prefix to easily identify them as test fields, for instance. You now want to delete them. They are not in use in any template. There are a lot of them. Instead of deleting them manually, you can use the API to do it for you.

<?php namespace ProcessWire;
// get your 'test' fields
// their names start with 'test', e.g. 'test_some_field'
$testFields = $fields->find("name^=test");
d($testFields,'TEST FIELDS');
foreach($testFields as $testField){
    $fields->delete($testField);
}

Run that in Tracy console and you are done.

Edited November 7, 2021 by kongondo
typos