Question

Possible Duplicate:
PHP __get and __set magic methods

Just starting with OOP. . Anyway not sure if I understand it correctly but shouldn’t the code not change the value of $attribute, because of function __set()?

<?php
class aclass
{
    protected $attribute; //edited from public to protected
    public function __get ($name)
    {
        return $this->$name;    
    }
    public function __set ($name, $value)
    {
        if($name == "foo")
        {
            $this->$name = $value;
        }
    }
} 
$a = new aclass();
$a->attribute = "bar";
echo $a->attribute;
?>

---

When I run this an error message shows:

“Fatal error: Cannot access protected property aclass::$attribute . . . on line 16”
Line 16 is “echo $a->attribute” – Other posts say that the attribute must be set to PROTECTED but its not working. Im using PHP 5.4.3 – Any ideas?

Answer 1

Your __set() magic method will be invoked only when trying to access non-public or undefined properties, but the attribute property IS defined and IS public, so it is accessed directly.

If you want the __set() method to “intecept” accesses to attribute, it must be made protected or private.