Question on arrays as properties

Hi,

Am I correct in saying that a class property cannot be initialized to an
array? Looking at zend_declare_property

it clearly states that Internal zvals cant be arrays.

So how would I go about creating the following inherited property in all my
subclasses if my core class has this property?

class ZObject {

protected $_props = array();

.

}

class ZString {

        public function __construct()

{

                    $this->setProperty($name, $value)

}

public function setProperty($name, $value)

{

                    $this->_props['value'];

}

}

In other words, how would I create a property that is an array (in C) where
that property is available to all my subclasses WITHOUT

initializing it manually in the __construct, which would force each subclass
constructor to call its parent (while good design, I'd prefer

not to have this constraint).

Thanks

Bob Silva