Private Property - Object Oriented PHP

Question

I am a beginner in Object Oriented Programming. I am confused with a variable being declared as PRIVATE.

 <?php class dog { private $Name; } class poodle extends dog { public function test($test){ $this->Name = $test; } } $poppy = new poodle; $poppy->test("test"); echo $poppy->Name; ?>

As I've read, "Private variables can only be accessed by the exact class that owns them - child classes cannot access private parent functions variables"

My question is if $Name is a private property, why was the output of the script returned "test" ? Shouldn't it have output an error message since another class is trying to access a private property?

dbf · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-18 10:31:13Z

The answer is pretty straight forward. If you do a var_dump output on the $poppy object, you will notice why it will output test anyhow.

object(poodle)[1] private 'Name' (dog) => null public 'Name' => string 'test' (length=4)

PHP is a dynamically typed based language, which can allocate variables in runtime without the need to declare space first. Because the property $Name doesn't exist in the object poodle (in class dog you declared it private making it not available for inheritance), it creates (declares) one on the fly (by default, non-existing variables become public).

This gives the illusion as if the property $Name of the object $dog was indeed set.

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