What is the syntax for accessing PHP object properties?

php oop properties getter-setter
Don P picture Don P · Sep 24, 2012 · Viewed 23.3k times · Source

How do you access a PHP object's properties?

Also, what is the difference between accessing an object's property with $this->$property1 vs. $this->property1?

When I try to use $this->$property1 I get the following error:

'PHP: Cannot access empty property'.

PHP's documentation on object properties has one comment which mentions this, but the comment doesn't really explain in depth.

Answer

Sposmen picture Sposmen · Sep 24, 2012
  1. $property1 // specific variable
  2. $this->property1 // specific attribute

The general use on classes is without "$" otherwise you are calling a variable called $property1 that could take any value.

Example:

class X {
  public $property1 = 'Value 1';
  public $property2 = 'Value 2';
}
$property1 = 'property2';  //Name of attribute 2
$x_object = new X();
echo $x_object->property1; //Return 'Value 1'
echo $x_object->$property1; //Return 'Value 2'

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