Quick Serialize

By Doeke Norg

<?php

final class ValueObject{

    private int $uninitialized;
    private int $initialized = 3;

    public function toArray(): array {
        return get_object_vars($this);
    }
}

$object = new ValueObject();

var_dump($object->toArray());

// ['initialized' => 3]

Did you know that get_object_vars() only returns the initialized parameters from your objects? This can be very useful when unserializing objects.

PS : accessing uninitialized properties leads to a Fatal error. This trick avoids it.

See Also

• Original

• initialized properties [Try me]

PHP Features

• initialisation

• get_object_vars

• serialization

Last updated: 14 July 2026