The Serializable interface

Introduction

Interface for customized serializing.

Classes that implement this interface no longer support __sleep() and __wakeup(). The serialize method is called whenever an instance needs to be serialized. This does not invoke __destruct or have any other side effect unless programmed inside the method. When the data is unserialized the class is known and the appropriate unserialize method is called as a constructor instead of calling __construct. The constructor can be called from within the unserialize method if desired.

Interface synopsis

Examples

<?php
class obj implements Serializable {
    private $data;
    public function __construct() {
        $this->data = "My private data";
    }
    public function serialize() {
        return serialize($this->data);
    }
    public function unserialize($data) {
        $this->data = unserialize($data);
    }
    public function getData() {
        return $this->data;
    }
}

$obj = new obj;
$ser = serialize($obj);

var_dump($ser);

$newobj = unserialize($ser);

var_dump($newobj->getData());
?>

Deprecated: obj implements the Serializable interface, which is deprecated. Implement __serialize() and __unserialize() instead (or in addition, if support for old PHP versions is necessary) in script on line 2
string(38) "C:3:"obj":23:{s:15:"My private data";}"
string(15) "My private data"