PHP Reflection

Nette\Utils\Reflection is a static class providing useful functions for PHP reflection. Its purpose is to address shortcomings in native reflection classes and unify behavior across different PHP versions.

Installation:

composer require nette/utils

All examples assume the following class alias is defined:

use Nette\Utils\Reflection;

areCommentsAvailable(): bool

Checks if reflection has access to PHPdoc comments. Comments might be unavailable due to opcode caching, see for example the opcache.save-comments directive.

expandClassName (string $name, ReflectionClass $context): string

Expands the class name $name to its fully qualified name within the context of the class $context, considering its namespace and defined aliases. Essentially, it determines how the PHP parser would interpret $name if it were written inside the body of the $context class.

namespace Foo;
use Bar;

class DemoClass
{
	// new Bar, new Baz
}

$context = new ReflectionClass(Foo\DemoClass::class);
Reflection::expandClassName('Bar', $context); // 'Bar'
Reflection::expandClassName('Baz', $context); // 'Foo\Baz'

getMethodDeclaringMethod (ReflectionMethod $method): ReflectionMethod

Returns the reflection of the method that contains the actual declaration of $method. Usually, a method is its own declaration, but the method body might originate from a trait and potentially under a different name.

Since PHP doesn't provide sufficient information to determine the true declaration reliably, Nette uses its own heuristics, which should be reliable.

trait DemoTrait
{
	function foo()
	{
	}
}


class DemoClass
{
	use DemoTrait {
		DemoTrait::foo as foo2;
	}
}


$method = new ReflectionMethod('DemoClass::foo2');
Reflection::getMethodDeclaringMethod($method); // ReflectionMethod('DemoTrait::foo')

getParameterDefaultValue (ReflectionParameter $param)

Returns the default value of $param in a function or method. If it is a constant, it returns its value. If the parameter does not have a default value or the constant cannot be resolved, it throws ReflectionException.

class DemoClass
{
	function foo($param = PDO::FETCH_BOTH)
	{
	}
}

$method = new ReflectionMethod('DemoClass::foo');
Reflection::getParameterDefaultValue($method->getParameters()[0]);

getParameterType (ReflectionParameter $param): ?string

Returns the type of $param in a function or method and normalizes self and parent to the actual class names. If the parameter does not have a type, it returns null.

class DemoClass
{
	function foo(self $param)
	{
	}
}

$method = new ReflectionMethod('DemoClass::foo');
Reflection::getReturnType($method->getParameters()[0]); // 'DemoClass'

getPropertyDeclaringClass (ReflectionProperty $prop): ReflectionClass

Returns the reflection of the class or trait that contains the declaration of the property $prop. The property might be declared within a trait.

Since PHP doesn't provide sufficient information to determine the true declaration reliably, Nette uses its own heuristics, which are not fully reliable.

trait DemoTrait
{
	public $foo;
}


class DemoClass
{
	use DemoTrait;
}

$prop = new ReflectionProperty(DemoClass::class, 'foo');
Reflection::getPropertyDeclaringClass($prop); // ReflectionClass('DemoTrait')

getReturnType (ReflectionFunctionAbstract $func): ?string

Returns the type of return value of function or method $func and normalizes self, static, and parent to actual class names. If the function does not have a return type, it returns null.

class DemoClass
{
	function foo(): self
	{
	}
}

$method = new ReflectionMethod('DemoClass::foo');
Reflection::getReturnType($method); // 'DemoClass'

isBuiltinType (string $type): bool

Checks if $type is a PHP built-in type. Otherwise, it's considered a class name.

Reflection::isBuiltinType('string'); // true
Reflection::isBuiltinType('Foo');    // false

toString ($reflection): string

Converts a reflection to a string.

$func = new ReflectionFunction('func');
echo Reflection::toString($func); // 'func'

$class = new ReflectionClass('DemoClass');
echo Reflection::toString($class); // 'DemoClass'

$method = new ReflectionMethod('DemoClass', 'foo');
echo Reflection::toString($method); // 'DemoClass::foo'

$param = new ReflectionParameter(['DemoClass', 'foo'], 'param');
echo Reflection::toString($param); // '$param in DemoClass::foo()'

$prop = new ReflectionProperty('DemoClass', 'foo');
echo Reflection::toString($prop); // 'DemoClass::$foo'