Regarding the generic deep __clone() example provided by david ashe at metabin:
If your object has a variable that stores an array of objects, that particular __clone() example will NOT perform a deep copy on your array of objects.
Clonado de Objetos
Crear una copia de un objeto con una replica de todas sus propiedades no es siempre lo que se desea hacer. Un buen ejemplo de la necesidad de copiar los constructores, es si se tiene un objeto el cual representa una ventana GTK y el objeto contiene los recursos de esta ventana GTK, cuando se crea un duplicado, puede quererse crear una nueva ventana con las mismas propiedades y hacer que el nuevo objeto tenga los recursos de la ventana nueva. Otro ejemplo es si su objeto tiene la referencia a otro objeto el cual usa, y cuando se duplica el objeto padre, quiere crear una nueva instancia de este otro objeto así que la replica tiene su propia copia.
Una copia de un objeto es creada usando la palabra 'clone' (la cual llama el método __clone() del objeto, si es posible). Un método __clone() de un objeto no puede ser llamado directamente.
$copy_of_object = clone $object;
Cuando un objeto es clonado, PHP 5 informará una copia baja de todas las propiedades del objeto. Cualquier propiedad que sean referencias a otras variables, permanecerán siendo referencias. Si un método __clone() es definido, entonces el método __clone() del nuevo objeto creado será llamado, para permitir cualquier propiedad que tenga que ser cambiada.
Example #1 Clonando un objeto
<?php
class SubObject
{
static $instances = 0;
public $instance;
public function __construct() {
$this->instance = ++self::$instances;
}
public function __clone() {
$this->instance = ++self::$instances;
}
}
class MyCloneable
{
public $object1;
public $object2;
function __clone()
{
// Force a copy of this->object, otherwise
// it will point to same object.
$this->object1 = clone($this->object1);
}
}
$obj = new MyCloneable();
$obj->object1 = new SubObject();
$obj->object2 = new SubObject();
$obj2 = clone $obj;
print("Original Object:\n");
print_r($obj);
print("Cloned Object:\n");
print_r($obj2);
?>
El resultado del ejemplo seria:
Original Object: MyCloneable Object ( [object1] => SubObject Object ( [instance] => 1 ) [object2] => SubObject Object ( [instance] => 2 ) ) Cloned Object: MyCloneable Object ( [object1] => SubObject Object ( [instance] => 3 ) [object2] => SubObject Object ( [instance] => 2 ) )
Clonado de Objetos
20-Jul-2008 12:34
19-May-2008 12:23
Remember that in PHP 5 ALL objects are assigned BY REFERENCE.
<?php
function foo($a) // notice that '&' near $a is missing
{
$a['bar'] = 10;
}
$x = array('bar' => 0); // built-in array() is not an object
$y = new ArrayObject(array('bar' => 0));
echo "\$x['bar'] == ${x['bar']};\n\$y['bar'] == ${y['bar']};\n\n";
foo($x);
foo($y);
echo "\$x['bar'] == ${x['bar']};\n\$y['bar'] == ${y['bar']};\n";
?>
Output:
$x['bar'] == 0;
$y['bar'] == 0;
$x['bar'] == 0;
$y['bar'] == 10;
Hope this will be useful.
By the way, to determine whether the variable is compatible with ArrayAccess/ArrayObject see http://php.net/manual/en/function.is-array.php#48083
13-Mar-2008 06:52
Keep in mind that since PHP 5.2.5, trying to clone a non-object correctly results in a fatal error, this differs from previous versions where only a Warning was thrown.
18-Dec-2007 12:51
It should go without saying that if you have circular references, where a property of object A refers to object B while a property of B refers to A (or more indirect loops than that), then you'll be glad that clone does NOT automatically make a deep copy!
<?php
class Foo
{
var $that;
function __clone()
{
$this->that = clone $this->that;
}
}
$a = new Foo;
$b = new Foo;
$a->that = $b;
$b->that = $a;
$c = clone $a;
echo 'What happened?';
var_dump($c);
02-Dec-2007 07:18
Here is a function to clone all of the objects automatically
(useful if you use a base class that has this method)
function __clone(){
foreach($this as $name => $value){
if(gettype($value)=='object'){
$this->$name= clone($this->$name);
}
}
}
13-Nov-2007 12:57
It should be noticed that __clone() does not allow you to return a value. Basically the idea is that you implement this magic method only when you want to execute operations inside the cloned object, immediately prior to the cloning. In this way __clone() is similar to the default destructor (__destruct()), in that it executes code right before the object is destroyed.
08-Oct-2007 04:43
I think this is a bit awkward:
<?php
class A{
public $aaa;
}
class B{
public $a;
public $bbb;
function __clone(){
$this->a = clone $this->a;//clone MANUALLY!!!
}
}
$b1 = new B();
$b1->a = new A();
$b1->a->aaa = 111;
$b1->bbb = 1;
$b2 = clone $b1;
$b2->a->aaa = 222;//BEWARE!!
$b2->bbb = 2;//no problem on basic types
var_dump($b1); echo '<br />';
var_dump($b2);
/*
OUTPUT BEFORE implementing the function __clone()
object(B)#2 (3) { ["a"]=> object(A)#3 (1) { ["aaa"]=> int(222) } ["bbb"]=> int(1) }
object(B)#4 (3) { ["a"]=> object(A)#3 (1) { ["aaa"]=> int(222) } ["bbb"]=> int(2) }
OUTPUT AFTER implementing the function __clone()
object(B)#1 (3) { ["a"]=> object(A)#2 (1) { ["aaa"]=> int(111) } ["bbb"]=> int(1) }
object(B)#3 (3) { ["a"]=> object(A)#4 (1) { ["aaa"]=> int(222) } ["bbb"]=> int(2) }
*/
?>
Whenever we use another class inside, we must clone it manually. If you have 10s of classes related, this is rather tedious. I don't want to even think about classes dynamically populated with other objects. Be careful when designing your classes! You should look after your objects all the time! This major change on PHP5 vs PHP4 regarding "references" definitely has very good performance improvements but comes with very dangerous side effects as well..
08-Feb-2007 04:18
To implement __clone() method in complex classes I use this simple function:
function clone_($some)
{
return (is_object($some)) ? clone $some : $some;
}
In this way I don't need to care about type of my class properties.
22-Jan-2007 01:30
I ran into the same problem of an array of objects inside of an object that I wanted to clone all pointing to the same objects. However, I agreed that serializing the data was not the answer. It was relatively simple, really:
public function __clone() {
foreach ($this->varName as &$a) {
foreach ($a as &$b) {
$b = clone $b;
}
}
}
Note, that I was working with a multi-dimensional array and I was not using the Key=>Value pair system, but basically, the point is that if you use foreach, you need to specify that the copied data is to be accessed by reference.
31-Mar-2005 01:29
I think it's relevant to note that __clone is NOT an override. As the example shows, the normal cloning process always occurs, and it's the responsibility of the __clone method to "mend" any "wrong" action performed by it.
