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Comparing objects


Comparing objects

In PHP 5, object comparison is more complicated than in PHP 4 and more in accordance to what one will expect from an Object Oriented Language (not that PHP 5 is such a language).

When using the comparison operator ( ==), object variables are compared in a simple manner, namely: Two object instances are equal if they have the same attributes and values, and are instances of the same class.

On the other hand, when using the identity operator ( ===), object variables are identical if and only if they refer to the same instance of the same class.

An example will clarify these rules.

Example #1 Example of object comparison in PHP 5

<?php
function  bool2str ( $bool )
{
    if (
$bool  ===  false ) {
        return 
'FALSE' ;
    } else {
        return 
'TRUE' ;
    }
}

function 
compareObjects (& $o1 , & $o2 )
{
    echo 
'o1 == o2 : '  bool2str ( $o1  ==  $o2 ) .  "\n" ;
    echo 
'o1 != o2 : '  bool2str ( $o1  !=  $o2 ) .  "\n" ;
    echo 
'o1 === o2 : '  bool2str ( $o1  ===  $o2 ) .  "\n" ;
    echo 
'o1 !== o2 : '  bool2str ( $o1  !==  $o2 ) .  "\n" ;
}

class 
Flag
{
    public 
$flag ;

    function 
Flag ( $flag  true ) {
        
$this -> flag  $flag ;
    }
}

class 
OtherFlag
{
    public 
$flag ;

    function 
OtherFlag ( $flag  true ) {
        
$this -> flag  $flag ;
    }
}

$o  = new  Flag ();
$p  = new  Flag ();
$q  $o ;
$r  = new  OtherFlag ();

echo 
"Two instances of the same class\n" ;
compareObjects ( $o $p );

echo 
"\nTwo references to the same instance\n" ;
compareObjects ( $o $q );

echo 
"\nInstances of two different classes\n" ;
compareObjects ( $o $r );
?>

The above example will output:

Two instances of the same class
o1 == o2 : TRUE
o1 != o2 : FALSE
o1 === o2 : FALSE
o1 !== o2 : TRUE

Two references to the same instance
o1 == o2 : TRUE
o1 != o2 : FALSE
o1 === o2 : TRUE
o1 !== o2 : FALSE

Instances of two different classes
o1 == o2 : FALSE
o1 != o2 : TRUE
o1 === o2 : FALSE
o1 !== o2 : TRUE

     

Note: Extensions can define own rules for their objects comparison.


 
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