How do I add an array as an Object Property to a class declared within a PHP extension?

c, php, php-extension, php-internals

Solution

The answer is to use `add_property_zval_ex()` in the constructor, rather than `zend_declare_property()`.

The following works as intended:

PHP_METHOD(MyClass, __construct)
{
    zval *myarray;
    zval *pThis;

    pThis = getThis();

    MAKE_STD_ZVAL(myarray);

    array_init(myarray);
    add_property_zval_ex(pThis, "MyMemberArray", sizeof("MyMemberArray"), myarray);
}

Problem

I want my PHP extension to declare a class equivalent to the following PHP: ``` class MyClass { public $MyMemberArray; __construct() { $this->MyMemberArray = array(); } } ``` I'm following the examples in "Advanced PHP Programming" and "Extending and Embedding PHP" and I'm able to declare a class that has integer properties in `PHP_MINIT_FUNCTION`. However, when I use the same approach to declare an array property in `PHP_MINIT_FUNCTION`, I get the following error message at runtime: ``` PHP Fatal error: Internal zval's can't be arrays, objects or resources in Unknown on line 0 ``` There's an example on page 557 of Advanced PHP Programming of how to declare a constructor which creates an array property, but the example code doesn't compile (the second "object" seems to be redundant). I fixed the bug and adapted it to my code: ``` PHP_METHOD(MyClass, __construct) { zval *myarray; zval *pThis; pThis = getThis(); MAKE_STD_ZVAL(myarray); array_init(myarray); zend_declare_property(Z_OBJCE_P(pThis), "MyMemberArray", sizeof("MyMemberArray"), myarray, ZEND_ACC_PUBLIC TSRMLS_DC); } ``` And this compiles, but it gives the same runtime error on construction.

Original source