Question

I have a class a and instantiated it using new

$obja = new a;

I know the difference between the below two lines

$obja2 = $ojba;
$obja2 = clone $obja;

But even if you declare or not declare __clone in the class a the first line $obja2 refer to $obja memory space and second line creates a copy of the $obja. Till here it is clear to me.

Then why php is having a magic method __clone?
Is it only for executing a set of codes which is written inside __clone while we use $obja2 = clone $obja;

Somebody please help to get a better idea of it.

Answer 1

void __clone ( void )

Once the cloning is complete, if a __clone() method is defined, then
the newly created object’s __clone() method will be called, to allow
any necessary properties that need to be changed.

http://php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.cloning.php#object.clone

So yes, it’s a callback after the clone operation has finished. Nothing more, nothing less.