Accessing StdClass value with colon :protected

Question

How do I access the value of stdClass with colon ":protected"?

For example, I had this $obj with these result :

object(Google_Service_Plus_PeopleFeed)#14 (11) {
  ["title"]=>
  string(30) "Google+ List of Visible People"
  ["totalItems"]=>
  int(4)
  ["collection_key:protected"]=>
  string(5) "items"
  ["data:protected"]=>
  array(1) {
    ["items"]=>
    array(2) {
      [0]=>
      array(7) {
        ["kind"]=>
        string(11) "plus#person"
        ["etag"]=>
        string(57) ""42gOj_aEQqJGtTB3WnOUT5yUTkI/1eNkvlfeTwXXldr9rYAvMcwM6bk""
        ["objectType"]=>
        string(6) "person"

For example, I tried to access "kind" value which is "plus#person" using these code :

$kind = $obj->{'data:protected'}->items[0]->kind; //-> returns NULL
//OR
$kind = $obj->{data:protected}->items[0]->kind; //->returns error on ":"

Well, they don't seems to work...Any idea how to access that protected data?

Thanks

Answer 1

You can't access to a protected property from outside this object. Look at http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.visibility.php

Answer 2

Well, I can finally access it with :

$kind = $obj['data']['items'][0]['kinds'];

Anybody can explain why? Just curious why it needs to be protected >.<

Answer 3

Please note that there is probably a reason that these properties are protected, so you should think twice before trying to access them.

If you need to access protected variables, you could use Reflection, but there might be an easier solution. By binding a closure to the object, you should be able to access the protected variables from the closure:

class X {
   protected $a = 10;
   public $b = 20; 
}


$closure = function() {
          return get_object_vars($this);
};

$result = Closure::bind($closure, new X(), 'X');
var_dump($result()); 

Answer 4

It's not a stdClass object, it's an object of the class Google_Service_Plus_PeopleFeed. You cannot access protected properties of a class [easily]. If the class doesn't want you to access the data, then you shouldn't. But typically the class offers some method you can call to get the data, like $obj->getData() or some such. Look at the class definition or its documentation to see how you're supposed to use the class.