10

I wonder how can I rename an object property in PHP, e.g.: 

<?php
    $obj = new stdclass();
    $obj->a = 10;  // will be renamed
    $obj->b = $obj->a; // rename "a" to "b", somehow!
    unset($obj->a); // remove the original one

It does not work in PHP5.3, (donno about earlier versions) since there will be a reference of $obj->a assigned to $obj->b and so by unsetting $obj->a, the value of $obj->b will be null. Any ideas please?

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  • 1
    PHP Version 5.3.4 after executing your code $obj: object(stdClass)#1 (1) { ["b"]=> int(10) } Commented Sep 5, 2011 at 15:55
  • 2
    It's not a reference. See this answer for details on PHP handles writing variables and references... Commented Sep 5, 2011 at 16:03

3 Answers 3

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9

Your code works correctly, $obj->b is 10 after execution: http://codepad.org/QnXvueic

When you unset $obj->a, you just remove the property, you do not touch to the value. If the value is used by an other variable, it's left untouched in the order variable.

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That's handy. It saves having to do reflection and other fancy stuff like in other languages.
2 
<?php     
$obj = new stdclass();
$obj->a = 10;  // will be renamed
$obj->b = $obj->a; // rename "a" to "b", somehow!
unset($obj->a); // remove the original one
var_dump($obj->b); //10 Works fine
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1 Comment

That's not a rename, it's a copy. It will occupy twice the memory of ->a. Just saying as "renaming" is often only something important to developers who handle large datasets.
-1

Use object clonning, Reference : PHP __clone() documentation

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