PHP - use __get with $this

Question

Usually if I have an object $foo and I want to intercept the access to one of its property, let's say bar, when using $foo->bar, I can use the magic method __get.

From what I can see (here) __get does not work when interactiong with $this. I find this kind of odd and inconsistent.

What is the reason beyond this behaviour?

Answer 1

__get() is only invoked if a property with the given name cannot be found on the object. In your example $this->a resolves to the protected property $a which is accessible from the context of the class. That's why __get() is not called in this case.

This has nothing to do with using $this.

class A {
    public $a = 'A'; // $a is public

    public function __get($name) {
        return 'B';
    }
}

$a = new A();
var_dump($a->a); // string(1) "A" and not "B"

class B {
    protected $b = 'B'; // $b is protected

    public function __get($name) {
        return 'C';
    }
}

$b = new B();
var_dump($b->b); // string(1) "C" and not "B"

class C1 {
    private $c = 'C';
}    

class C2 extends C1 {
    public function __get($name) {
        return 'D';
    }
}

$c = new C2();
var_dump($c->c); // string(1) "D" and not "C"