note 99147 added to class.reflectionproperty

I think a more accurate explanation is this: The Reflection classes are designed to reflect upon the source code of an application, not on any runtime information. I think you misunderstand the ReflectionProperty constructor in your example above. The fact that it accepts an object as argument is just a convenience feature - you are actually inspecting the class of that object, not the object itself, so it's basically equivalent to: <?php // works fine $Reflection = new ReflectionProperty(get_class($a), 'a'); // throws exception $Reflection = new ReflectionProperty(get_class($a), 'foo'); ?> Getting the class of the object you're passing in is implied, since inspecting a defined property is the purpose of this class. In your example, $a->foo is a dynamic member - it is not defined as a member of class, so there is no defining class reference, line number, default value, etc. - which means, there is nothing to reflect upon. Clearly this very useful library could use some real documentation... ---- Server IP: 69.147.83.197 Probable Submitter: 67.249.192.161 ---- Manual Page -- http://www.php.net/manual/en/class.reflectionproperty.php Edit -- https://master.php.net/note/edit/99147 Del: integrated -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/99147/integrated Del: useless -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/99147/useless Del: bad code -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/99147/bad+code Del: spam -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/99147/spam Del: non-english -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/99147/non-english Del: in docs -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/99147/in+docs Del: other reasons-- https://master.php.net/note/delete/99147 Reject -- https://master.php.net/note/reject/99147 Search -- https://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php