Object Invasion

PHP allows objects of one class to access private structures of an object of the same class.

This is useful when cloning or importing objects with __set_state() : within the same class, those methods can create new objects and assign all their properties.

This feature break OOP encapsulation : even when using private visibility, it is possible to access then from outside the object.

<?php

class A {
     private $p = 0;

     // accessing a different object
     function foo(A $a) {
             $a->p = $this->p;
     }

     function __set_state($array) {
             $object = new self();
             $object->p = $array['p'];

             return $object;
     }
}

?>

Documentation

Related : __set_state() Method

Related packages : spatie/invade