get_class_methods

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

get_class_methods — Gets the class methods' names

Description

get_class_methods(object|string $object_or_class): array

Gets the class methods names.

Parameters

object_or_class: The class name or an object instance

Return Values

Returns an array of method names defined for the class specified by object_or_class.

Changelog

Version	Description
8.0.0	The `object_or_class` parameter now only accepts objects or valid class names.

Examples

Example #1 get_class_methods() example

<?php

class myclass {
    // constructor
    function __construct()
    {
        return(true);
    }

    // method 1
    function myfunc1()
    {
        return(true);
    }

    // method 2
    function myfunc2()
    {
        return(true);
    }
}

$class_methods = get_class_methods('myclass');
// or
$class_methods = get_class_methods(new myclass());

foreach ($class_methods as $method_name) {
    echo "$method_name\n";
}

?>

The above example will output:

__construct
myfunc1
myfunc2

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User Contributed Notes 13 notes

down

fschmengler at sgh-it dot eu ¶

14 years ago

It should be noted that the returned methods are dependant on the current scope. See this example:

<?php
class C
{
    private function privateMethod()
    {
        
    }
    public function publicMethod()
    {
        
    }
    public function __construct()
    {
        echo '$this:';
        var_dump(get_class_methods($this));
        echo 'C (inside class):';
        var_dump(get_class_methods('C'));
    }
}
$c = new C;
echo '$c:';
var_dump(get_class_methods($c));
echo 'C (outside class):';
var_dump(get_class_methods('C'));
?>

Output:

$this:
array
  0 => string 'privateMethod' (length=13)
  1 => string 'publicMethod' (length=12)
  2 => string '__construct' (length=11)

C (inside class):
array
  0 => string 'privateMethod' (length=13)
  1 => string 'publicMethod' (length=12)
  2 => string '__construct' (length=11)

$c:
array
  0 => string 'publicMethod' (length=12)
  1 => string '__construct' (length=11)

C (outside class):
array
  0 => string 'publicMethod' (length=12)
  1 => string '__construct' (length=11)

down

gk at proliberty dot com ¶

21 years ago

It is important to note that get_class_methods($class) returns not only methods defined by $class but also the inherited methods.

There does not appear to be any PHP function to determine which methods are inherited and which are defined explicitly by a class.

down

onesimus at cox dot net ¶

20 years ago

This function will return only the methods for the object you indicate. It will strip out the inherited methods.

function get_this_class_methods($class){
    $array1 = get_class_methods($class);
    if($parent_class = get_parent_class($class)){
        $array2 = get_class_methods($parent_class);
        $array3 = array_diff($array1, $array2);
    }else{
        $array3 = $array1;
    }
    return($array3);
}

down

matt at zevi dot net ¶

22 years ago

Win32 only:

It's probably worth noting here that you can't get the methods of an object created by the built-in 'COM' class. ie - this won't work:

$word = new COM('Word.Application');
$methods = get_class_methods(get_class($word));
print_r($methods);

Matt

down

jazepstein at greenash dot net dot au ¶

19 years ago

In PHP4, this function converts its return values to lowercase; but in PHP5, it leaves the return values in their original case. This can cause serious problems when trying to write code that dynamically calls a class method, and that works in both PHP4 and PHP5. This code snippet shows one way of achieving compatibility with both versions:

<?php
// Example variables - these would be dynamic in a real application.
$className = 'SomeClass';
$methodName= 'someMethod';
$args = array('arg1', 'arg2');

// Use array_map() and strtolower() to make all values returned by get_class_methods() lowercase. PHP4 does this anyway - now it will happen regardless of the PHP version being used.
$classMethods = array_map(strtolower, get_class_methods($className));

// in_array() can only handle being given an array.
if (!$classMethods) {
  $classMethods = array();
}

if (in_array(strtolower($methodName), $classMethods)) {
  // call some method
  return call_user_func_array(array($className, $methodName), $args);
}
?>

down

Oli Filth ¶

19 years ago

As an extension to onesimus's code below for finding inherited methods, in PHP 5 you can use the Reflection API to find which of these are overriden.

e.g.

<?php
function get_overriden_methods($class)
{
    $rClass = new ReflectionClass($class);
    $array = NULL;
        
    foreach ($rClass->getMethods() as $rMethod)
    {
        try
        {
            // attempt to find method in parent class
            new ReflectionMethod($rClass->getParentClass()->getName(),
                                $rMethod->getName());
            // check whether method is explicitly defined in this class
            if ($rMethod->getDeclaringClass()->getName()
                == $rClass->getName())
            {
                // if so, then it is overriden, so add to array
                $array[] .=  $rMethod->getName();
            }
        }
        catch (exception $e)
        {    /* was not in parent class! */    }
    }
    
    return $array;
}
?>

down

polarglow06 at gmail dot com ¶

9 years ago

I have created a very simple test runner using this function

function get_bar($text) {
    $bar = "";
    for($i=1; $i<=strlen($text); $i++) {
        $bar .= "=";
    }
    return $bar;
}
class Tester {
    function __construct() {
        $this->run_tests();
    }
    // run the tests
    function run_tests() {
        print("Tester by Minhajul Anwar \n");
        $class = get_class($this);
        $test_methods = preg_grep('/^test/', get_class_methods($this));
        foreach($test_methods as $method) {
            $start_rep = "test: $class::$method";
            $bar = get_bar($start_rep);
            print("\n$start_rep\n$bar\n");
            $this->$method();
            print("\n");
        }
    }
}

now you just need to write your test class with tegst methods prefixed by 'test', and then just instantiate object of that test class of your, all those tests methods will get run automatically
The drawback is: your test methods must not accept any arguments

an example:
require '../autoload.php';
register_autoload_paths(realpath('./'));

class Test_Test extends Tester {
    function test_something() {
        print("method got executed");
    }
    function testAnotherThing() {
    print("another test method");
    }
}

$Test = new Test_Test();

down

aldo at cerca dot com ¶

22 years ago

If you use "get_class_methods" to check if a Method is in a Class remember that the function return lowered name of class methods:

class classPippo
{
        function DummyFunct()
        {
                // Do nothing...
        }
}

$aClassMethods = get_class_methods(classPippo);

$sMethodName = 'DummyFunct';

// This not work...

        if (in_array($sMethodName, $aClassMethods))
        classPippo::DummyFunct();

// This work...

        if (in_array(strtolower($sMethodName), $aClassMethods))
        classPippo::DummyFunct();

down

php at stock-consulting dot com ¶

17 years ago

Note that this function will answer both class AND instance methods ("class methods" are called "static" in PHP). Sort of a little "trap" for people who have in-depth experience with the OO terminology :-)

down

kabatak ¶

19 years ago

In PHP4, if you need to get_class_methods in their original case. You can use this simple function I created.

// Note: this function assumes that you only have 1 class in 1 file

$file = "path/to/myclass.php"

function file_get_class_methods ($file)
{
    $arr = file($file);
    foreach ($arr as $line)
    {
        if (ereg ('function ([_A-Za-z0-9]+)', $line, $regs))
            $arr_methods[] = $regs[1];
    }
    return $arr_methods;
}

down

-2

BoD ¶

18 years ago

!Concerning PHP5 Only!

If you want to get all methods/functions from a class you can do this with the get_class_methods function.
<?php
    $arrMethodNames = get_class_methods ( $ClassNameOrObject);
?>
However the drawback on this function in PHP5 is that you will NOT receive protected and private methods of a class/object if you are calling the method from another class/object context.

If you want to receive all methods of a given Class in another Class you should use the PHP5 Reflection API. The following source allows to retrieve all methods from a derived class in its (abstract) Base Class.

In the example you need to call the base constructor from the derived classes constructor in order to let the base class know the name of the derived class. Use the "__CLASS__" definition for passing the classname of current class to its base class.

<?php

    // Base Class - Abstract
    abstract class A {
        
        // Array of ReflectionMethod Objects
        // is being set upon instanciation
        // derived Classes don't need to know about this array
        private $arrMethods;
                
        // Constructor which MUST be called from derived Class Constructor
        protected function __construct ( $strDerivedClassName ) {
            $oRefl = new ReflectionClass ( $strDerivedClassName );
            if ( is_object($oRefl) ) {
                $this->arrMethods = $oRefl->getMethods();
            }
        }
        
        // Some abstract function
        abstract protected function D ();
        
        // Some private function
        private function E() {
        }
        
        // method to print all class/object methods
        // must be callable from derived classes
        // can be protected if only for internal class use
        public function PrintAllMethods () {
            foreach ( $this->arrMethods as $curReflectionMethod ) {
                echo $curReflectionMethod->getName()."<br>";
            }
        }
    }
    
    
    // Derived Class
    class B extends A {
        
        // Constructor for this class
        // MUST call Base Constructor
        public function __construct () {
            // Call Base Constructor
            parent::__construct(__CLASS__);
        }
        
        
        // Some public function
        public function A () {
        }
        
        // some protected function
        protected function B () {
        }
        
        // some private function
        private function C() {
        }
        
        // some abstract method from base class implemented
        protected function D () {
        }
    }
    
    
    // Create new B Object
    $b = new B();
    // Print all Methods of this Object/Class
    $b->PrintAllMethods();
?>

In this example output will be:

__construct
A
B
C
D
E
PrintAllMethods

As you can see these are all methods from class B and also all methods from Class A respectivly in order of their declaration. Note that only one method "__construct" and only one method "D" are being shown. This is due to overloading (__construct) and implementing (D) in PHP.

In this example any further method-handling methods should be implemented in the base class as these will be available in derived classes as well. Just make sure that you use the right access specifiers for these additional methods ( private, protected, public )

BoD

down

-2

iarias at loyalia dot es ¶

6 years ago

If you only need the methods declared by the class, and not the parent classes ones, you can do something like:

$declared_methods = array_diff(get_class_methods($class), get_class_methods(get_parent_class($class)));

down

-5

epowell at removethis dot visi dot com ¶

20 years ago

I've figured out how to get around my issue described below, using the Reflection API.

<?
/* Pass the name of the class, not a declared handler */
function get_public_methods($className) {
    /* Init the return array */
    $returnArray = array();

    /* Iterate through each method in the class */
    foreach (get_class_methods($className) as $method) {

        /* Get a reflection object for the class method */
        $reflect = new ReflectionMethod($className, $method);

        /* For private, use isPrivate().  For protected, use isProtected() */
        /* See the Reflection API documentation for more definitions */
        if($reflect->isPublic()) {
            /* The method is one we're looking for, push it onto the return array */
            array_push($returnArray,$method);
        }
    }

    /* return the array to the caller */
    return $returnArray;
}
?>

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get_class_methods

Description

Parameters

Return Values

Changelog

Examples

See Also

Improve This Page

User Contributed Notes 13 notes