Object Cloning

1.behaviors

①When an object is cloned, PHP will perform a shallow copy of all of the object’s properties. Any properties that are references to other variables will remain references.

②Once the cloning is complete, if a __clone() method is defined, then the newly created object’s __clone() method will be called, to allow any necessary properties that need to be changed.

2.example

<?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);

?>
The above example will output:

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
        )

)

3.swallow copy

Shallow copy is a bit-wise copy of an object. A new object is created that has an exact copy of the values in the original object. If any of the fields of the object are references to other objects, just the reference addresses are copied i.e., only the memory address is copied

4.deep copy

A deep copy copies all fields, and makes copies of dynamically allocated memory pointed to by the fields. A deep copy occurs when an object is copied along with the objects to which it refers. Shallow Copy. Shallow copy is a bit-wise copy of an object.

5.swallow copy VS deep copy

①Shallow copies duplicate as little as possible. A shallow copy of a collection is a copy of the collection structure, not the elements. With a shallow copy, two collections now share the individual elements.

②Deep copies duplicate everything. A deep copy of a collection is two collections with all of the elements in the original collection duplicated.