Can I get the value of a private property with Reflection?

php, reflection

Solution

class A
{
    private $b = 'c';
}

$obj = new A();

$r = new ReflectionObject($obj);
$p = $r->getProperty('b');
$p->setAccessible(true); // <--- you set the property to public before you read the value

var_dump($p->getValue($obj));

Update: As of PHP 8.1.0, calling ReflectionProperty::setAccessible method has no effect; all properties are accessible by default.

Problem

It doesn't seem to work: ``` $ref = new ReflectionObject($obj); if($ref->hasProperty('privateProperty')){ print_r($ref->getProperty('privateProperty')); } ``` It gets into the IF loop, and then throws an error: Property privateProperty does not exist :| `$ref = new ReflectionProperty($obj, 'privateProperty')` doesn't work either... The documentation page lists a few constants, including `IS_PRIVATE`. How can I ever use that if I can't access a private property lol?

Original source