How to inspect an object

http://www.php.net/manual/en/book.reflection.php

Function	Description
class_exists($class)	Returns TRUE if the specified class has been defined.
get_class($object)	Returns the class name of the specified object as a string.
is_a($object, $class)	Returns TRUE if the specified object is an instance of the specified class.
property_exists($object, $property)	Returns TRUE if the specified object has the specified property.
method_exists($object, $method)	Returns TRUE if the specified object has the specified method.

if (is_a($trumpet, 'Product')) { 
  // Code to work with a Product object 
}

if (property_exists($trumpet, 'price')) {
  // Code to work with the price property
}

if (method_exists($trumpet, 'getPrice')) { 
  // Code to work with the getPrice method 
}

Description

• Inspecting an object is known as introspection or reflection.
• When you specify the argument for the property_exists() and method_exists() functions, you can specify an object or the name of a class.
• The property_exists() and method_exists() functions return TRUE even if the property or method is private or protected.
• Version 5 of PHP introduced a reflection API that allows you to examine functions, classes, methods, and properties. To learn more about it, you can go to the URL at the top of this page.