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Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2003 19:16:51 +0200
To: Greg Beaver <greg@chiaraquartet.net>,internals@lists.php.net
In-Reply-To: <3F0F47D2.80208@chiaraquartet.net>
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Questionable private $varname behavior
From: andi@zend.com (Andi Gutmans)
References: <3F0F47D2.80208@chiaraquartet.net>

At 07:27 PM 11/7/2003 -0400, Greg Beaver wrote:
>Hi, a discussion on php.general led to the discovery of this oddly legal 
>script:
>
><?php
>   class dog {
>     // declare two private variables
>     private $Name;
>     private $DogTag;
>
>     public function bark() {
>       print "Woof!\n";
>     }
>
>     public function printName() {
>       print $this->Name; // prints nothing!
>     }
>   }
>
>   // new class, for testing derived stuff
>   class poodle extends dog {
>     public function bark() {
>       print "Yip!\n";
>     }
>   }
>
>   // I now create an instance of the
>   // derived class
>   $poppy = new poodle;
>
>   // and set its private property
>   $poppy->Name = "Poppy";
>   print $poppy->Name. "\n";
>   $poppy->printName();
>   print_r($poppy);
>?>
>
>outputs:
>
>Poppy
>poodle Object
>(
>     [Name:private] =>
>     [DogTag:private] =>
>     [Name] => Poppy
>)
>
>Is this expected behavior or should I open a bug?

Seems to be expected behavior to me. poodle doesn't *know* the private 
variable "Name" so when you use $poppy->Name it declares a public member 
instead. As printName() is inherited from the base class it accesses the 
private member and not the public one.

Andi