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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.