How to inspect an object

       http://www.php.net/manual/en/book.reflection.php

Functions for inspecting an object

Function	Description
class_exists($class)	Returns TRUE if the specified class has been defined.
get_class($object)	Returns the class name of the specified object as a string.
is_a($object, $class)	Returns TRUE if the specified object is an instance of the specified class.
property_exists($object, $property)	Returns TRUE if the specified object has the specified property.
method_exists($object, $method)	Returns TRUE if the specified object has the specified method.

Determine if an object is an instance of a class

      if (is_a($trumpet, 'Product')) { 
        // Code to work with a Product object 
      }

Determine if an object has a property

      if (property_exists($trumpet, 'price')) {
        // Code to work with the price property
      }

Determine if an object has a method

      if (method_exists($trumpet, 'getPrice')) { 
        // Code to work with the getPrice method 
      }

    Description
      Inspecting an object is known as introspection or reflection.
When you specify the argument for the property_exists() and method_exists() functions, you can specify an object or the name of a class.
The property_exists() and method_exists() functions return TRUE even if the property or method is private or protected.
Version 5 of PHP introduced a reflection API that allows you to examine functions, classes, methods, and properties. To learn more about it, you can go to the URL at the top of this page.

    

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