Serialize object from within

Question

I have the class testClass which has the method save. This method saves object to a database. But it needs to serialize object before saving. How can I serialize object from within the class to do that?

class testClass {
    private $prop = 777;
    public function save() {
        $serializedObject = serialize(self);
        DB::insert('objects', array('id', 'object'))
                ->values(array(1, $serializedObject))
                ->execute();
    }
}

serialize(self) obviously doesn't work.

hek2mgl · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-19 12:11:37Z

5

First, you need to pass $this to serialize() rather than self:

$serializedObject = serialize($this);

Secondly, unless you are not implementing the Serializable interface (as from PHP 5.1 ) you need to implement the "magic method" __sleep() in order to serialize private or protected properties:

public function __sleep() {
    return array('prop');
}

This manual page about serializing objects should help further.

edited Oct 19, 2013 at 12:11

answered Oct 19, 2013 at 9:51

hek2mgl

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7 Comments

Max Koretskyi Over a year ago

What if my object testClass included objects of other classes as properties, should those other classes implement __sleep function as well for private properties?

hek2mgl Over a year ago

@Maximus Yes, they have to. If not, you need to use __sleep() and __wakeup of testClass to get necessary data to serialize and unserialize them again.

hek2mgl Over a year ago

@Maximus No, __sleep and __wakeup have to be public

hek2mgl Over a year ago

@Maximus Also check the Serializable interface. (I forgot to mention this)

hek2mgl Over a year ago

__sleep() / __wakeup() do not behave different than other methods. You may define the base behaviour in the parent class and refine it in sub classes

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