Are there any differences between get_object_vars($obj) and (array) $obj ?
Both seem to return the public properties of the object.
Which is better?
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3 Answers
This is not exactly true.
get_object_vars is scope-sensitive and will return all visible properties excepting static properties regardless of their visbility. If you call it from outside your class, you'll only get the public members; from a derived class, you'll get the protected and public members; and from the class itself, you'll get all the members. The array keys represent the property names, and are not mangled.
The (array) cast returns, at least on PHP 5.3.0, all the object properties, public and otherwise. The name of the properties are mangled according to their protection level:
public: not mangled, identical to property namesprotected: key name for property starts with a*private: key name for property starts with the name of the class
See casting to an array for more informations.
I hope you'll be able to better understand which one is the most appropriate for your situation.
3 Comments
hakre
To add, for the
(array) cast, the * for protected and the classname for private members will be enclosed in null-bytes (\x00), so strictly it's \x00*\x00 for protected members and likewise for the private members: \x00className\x00. Related: Array to Object and Object to Array in PHP - interesting behaviour
Sherbrow
Another difference (at least in PHP 5) : with
get_object_vars the keys will be cast to int if they are numbers, where casting returns string indexes : 3v4l.org/2Wb9j
revo
One more to
(array) is that it won't include static properties either regardless of their visibility.The get_object_vars() function is a clearer method of achieving the effect you want. Although casting it to an array is a solution as well, this behavior might change in later versions of PHP.
I don't know if there is an actual difference between the two methods but the arguments above would lead me to use the function.
1 Comment
zneak
Why should the array cast be less reliable in its behavior than the function? Do you have documentation supporting it?
Better is what is what you actually need. get_object_vars() doesn’t show private and protected members. See this comment in the manual for an example.
1 Comment
Franz Holzinger
get_object_varsshows also protected member variables.