How do I create a copy of an object in PHP?

Question

It appears that in PHP objects are passed by reference. Even assignment operators do not appear to be creating a copy of the Object.

Here's a simple, contrived proof:

<?php

class A {
    public $b;
}


function set_b($obj) { $obj->b = "after"; }

$a = new A();
$a->b = "before";
$c = $a; //i would especially expect this to create a copy.

set_b($a);

print $a->b; //i would expect this to show 'before'
print $c->b; //i would ESPECIALLY expect this to show 'before'

?>

In both print cases I am getting 'after'

So, how do I pass $a to set_b() by value, not by reference?

Answer 1

In PHP 5+ objects are passed by reference. In PHP 4 they are passed by value (that's why it had runtime pass by reference, which became deprecated).

You can use the 'clone' operator in PHP5 to copy objects:

$objectB = clone $objectA;

Also, it's just objects that are passed by reference, not everything as you've said in your question...

Answer 2

The answers are commonly found in Java books.

1. cloning: If you don't override clone method, the default behavior is shallow copy. If your objects have only primitive member variables, it's totally ok. But in a typeless language with another object as member variables, it's a headache.

2. serialization/deserialization

$new_object = unserialize(serialize($your_object))

This achieves deep copy with a heavy cost depending on the complexity of the object.

Answer 3

According to the previous comment, if you have another object as a member variable, do the following:

class MyClass {
  private $someObject;

  public function __construct() {
    $this->someObject = new SomeClass();
  }

  public function __clone() {
    $this->someObject = clone $this->someObject;
  }

}

Now you can do cloning:

$bar = new MyClass();
$foo = clone $bar;

Answer 4

According to the docs (http://ca3.php.net/language.oop5.cloning):

$a = clone $b;

Answer 5

Just to clarify PHP uses copy on write, so basically everything is a reference until you modify it, but for objects you need to use clone and the __clone() magic method like in the accepted answer.

Answer 6

This code help clone methods

class Foo{

    private $run=10;
    public $foo=array(2,array(2,8));
    public function hoo(){return 5;}


    public function __clone(){

        $this->boo=function(){$this->hoo();};

    }
}
$obj=new Foo;

$news=  clone $obj;
var_dump($news->hoo());

Answer 7

I was doing some testing and got this:

class A {
  public $property;
}

function set_property($obj) {
  $obj->property = "after";
  var_dump($obj);
}

$a = new A();
$a->property = "before";

// Creates a new Object from $a. Like "new A();"
$b = new $a;
// Makes a Copy of var $a, not referenced.
$c = clone $a;

set_property($a);
// object(A)#1 (1) { ["property"]=> string(5) "after" }

var_dump($a); // Because function set_property get by reference
// object(A)#1 (1) { ["property"]=> string(5) "after" }
var_dump($b);
// object(A)#2 (1) { ["property"]=> NULL }
var_dump($c);
// object(A)#3 (1) { ["property"]=> string(6) "before" }

// Now creates a new obj A and passes to the function by clone (will copied)
$d = new A();
$d->property = "before";

set_property(clone $d); // A new variable was created from $d, and not made a reference
// object(A)#5 (1) { ["property"]=> string(5) "after" }

var_dump($d);
// object(A)#4 (1) { ["property"]=> string(6) "before" }

?>

Answer 8

In this example we will create iPhone class and make exact copy from it by cloning

class iPhone
{
    public $name;
    public $email;

    public function __construct($n, $e) {

       $this->name = $n;
       $this->email = $e;

    }
}

$main = new iPhone('Dark', 'm@m.com');
$copy = clone $main;

// if you want to print both objects, just write this    

echo "<pre>"; print_r($main);  echo "</pre>";
echo "<pre>"; print_r($copy);  echo "</pre>";

Answer 9

If you want to fully copy properties of an object in a different instance, you may want to use this technique:

Serialize it to JSON and then de-serialize it back to Object.