Detect if an object property is private in PHP

Question

I\'m trying to make a PHP (5) object that can iterate through its properties, building an SQL query based only on its public properties, not its private ones.

As this pa

Answer 1

You can use Reflection to examine the properties of the class. To get only public and protected properties, profile a suitable filter to the ReflectionClass::getProperties method.

Here's a quicky example of your makeString method using it.

public function makeString()
{
    $string = "";
    $reflection = new ReflectionObject($this);
    $properties = $reflection->getProperties(ReflectionProperty::IS_PUBLIC);
    foreach ($properties as $property) {
        $name    = $property->getName();
        $value   = $property->getValue($this);
        $string .= sprintf(" property '%s' = '%s' 
", $name, $value);
    }
    return $string;
}