note 102880 modified in language.oop5.properties by danbrown

$this can be cast to array. But when doing so, it prefixes the property names/new array keys with certain data depending on the property classification. Public property names are not changed. Protected properties are prefixed with a space-padded '*'. Private properties are prefixed with the space-padded class name... <?php class test { public $var1 = 1; protected $var2 = 2; private $var3 = 3; static $var4 = 4; public function toArray() { return (array) $this; } } $t = new test; print_r($t->toArray()); /* outputs: Array ( [var1] => 1 [ * var2] => 2 [ test var3] => 3 ) */ ?> This is documented behavior when converting any object to an array (see </language.types.array.php#language.types.array.casting> PHP manual page). All properties regardless of visibility will be shown when casting an object to array (with exceptions of a few built-in objects). To get an array with all property names unaltered, use the 'get_object_vars($this)' function in any method within class scope to retrieve an array of all properties regardless of external visibility, or 'get_object_vars($object)' outside class scope to retrieve an array of only public properties (see: </function.get-object-vars.php> PHP manual page). --was-- $this can be cast to array. But when doing so, it prefixes the property names/new array keys with certain data depending on the property classification. Public property names are not changed. Protected properties are prefixed with a space-padded '*'. Private properties are prefixed with the space-padded class name... <?php class test { public $var1 = 1; protected $var2 = 2; private $var3 = 3; static $var4 = 4; public function toArray() { return (array) $this; } } $t = new test; print_r($t->toArray()); /* outputs: Array ( [var1] => 1 [ * var2] => 2 [ test var3] => 3 ) */ ?> http://php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.properties.php