The ReflectionProperty class reports information about a classes properties.
Prop description
Prop description
Description here...
Description here...
Description here...
Description here...
Please ignore my previous note. I didn't fully understand what the previous notes were referring to as "runtime". I now see they were referring to a slightly different question.
Apologies!
You CAN reflect an object at runtime:
<?php
class Abc {
private $_abc = 123;
public function __construct($abc) {
$this->_abc = $abc;
}
}
$obj = new Abc('def');
$refl = new \ReflectionObject($obj);
$prop = $refl->getProperty('_abc');
$prop->setAccessible(true);
echo $prop->getValue($obj);
?>
This outputs 'def', the value of _abc set at runtime.
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...
Beware, the Reflection reflects only the information right after compile time based on the definitions, not based on runtime objects. Might be obvious, wasn't for me, until the app throws the exception at my head.
Example:
<?php
class A {
public $a = null;
function set() {
$this->foo = 'bar';
}
}
$a = new A;
$a->set();
// works fine
$Reflection = new ReflectionProperty($a, 'a');
// throws exception
$Reflection = new ReflectionProperty($a, 'foo');
?>