How to Access a Property of an Object (Stdclass Object) Member/Element of an Array

How to access a property of an object (stdClass Object) member/element of an array?

To access an array member you use $array['KEY'];

To access an object member you use $obj->KEY;

To access an object member inside an array of objects:

$array[0] // Get the first object in the array

$array[0]->KEY // then access its key

You may also loop over an array of objects like so:

foreach ($arrayOfObjs as $key => $object) {
    echo $object->object_property;
}

Think of an array as a collection of things. It's a bag where you can store your stuff and give them a unique id (key) and access them (or take the stuff out of the bag) using that key. I want to keep things simple here, but this bag can contain other bags too :)

Update (this might help someone understand better):

An array contains 'key' and 'value' pairs. Providing a key for an array member is optional and in this case it is automatically assigned a numeric key which starts with 0 and keeps on incrementing by 1 for each additional member. We can retrieve a 'value' from the array by it's 'key'.

So we can define an array in the following ways (with respect to keys):

First method:

$colorPallete = ['red', 'blue', 'green'];

The above array will be assigned numeric keys automatically. So the key assigned to red will be 0, for blue 1 and so on.

Getting values from the above array:

$colorPallete[0]; // will output 'red'
$colorPallete[1]; // will output 'blue'
$colorPallete[2]; // will output 'green'

Second method:

$colorPallete = ['love' => 'red', 'trust' => 'blue', 'envy' => 'green']; // we expliicitely define the keys ourself.

Getting values from the above array:

$colorPallete['love']; // will output 'red'
$colorPallete['trust']; // will output 'blue'
$colorPallete['envy']; // will output 'green'

How to access elements of stdClass Object in PHP

$objectVar = $modas_pares[0]->pares; //spits out 4

How can I access an array/object?

To access an array or object you how to use two different operators.

Arrays

To access array elements you have to use [].

echo $array[0];

On older PHP versions, an alternative syntax using {} was also allowed:

echo $array{0};

Difference between declaring an array and accessing an array element

Defining an array and accessing an array element are two different things. So don't mix them up.

To define an array you can use array() or for PHP >=5.4 [] and you assign/set an array/-element. While when you are accessing an array element with [] as mentioned above, you get the value of an array element opposed to setting an element.

//Declaring an array
$arrayA = array ( /*Some stuff in here*/ );
$arrayB = [ /*Some stuff in here*/ ]; //Only for PHP >=5.4

//Accessing an array element
echo $array[0];

Access array element

To access a particular element in an array you can use any expression inside [] or {} which then evaluates to the key you want to access:

$array[(Any expression)]

So just be aware of what expression you use as key and how it gets interpreted by PHP:

echo $array[0];            //The key is an integer; It accesses the 0's element
echo $array["0"];          //The key is a string; It accesses the 0's element
echo $array["string"];     //The key is a string; It accesses the element with the key 'string'
echo $array[CONSTANT];     //The key is a constant and it gets replaced with the corresponding value
echo $array[cOnStAnT];     //The key is also a constant and not a string
echo $array[$anyVariable]  //The key is a variable and it gets replaced with the value which is in '$anyVariable'
echo $array[functionXY()]; //The key will be the return value of the function

Access multidimensional array

If you have multiple arrays in each other you simply have a multidimensional array. To access an array element in a sub array you just have to use multiple [].

echo $array["firstSubArray"]["SecondSubArray"]["ElementFromTheSecondSubArray"]
         // ├─────────────┘  ├──────────────┘  ├────────────────────────────┘
         // │                │                 └── 3rd Array dimension;
         // │                └──────────────────── 2d  Array dimension;
         // └───────────────────────────────────── 1st Array dimension;

Objects

To access an object property you have to use ->.

echo $object->property;

If you have an object in another object you just have to use multiple -> to get to your object property.

echo $objectA->objectB->property;

Note:

Also you have to be careful if you have a property name which is invalid! So to see all problems, which you can face with an invalid property name see this question/answer. And especially this one if you have numbers at the start of the property name.
You can only access properties with public visibility from outside of the class. Otherwise (private or protected) you need a method or reflection, which you can use to get the value of the property.

Arrays & Objects

Now if you have arrays and objects mixed in each other you just have to look if you now access an array element or an object property and use the corresponding operator for it.

//Object
echo $object->anotherObject->propertyArray["elementOneWithAnObject"]->property;
    //├────┘  ├───────────┘  ├───────────┘ ├──────────────────────┘   ├──────┘
    //│       │              │             │                          └── property ; 
    //│       │              │             └───────────────────────────── array element (object) ; Use -> To access the property 'property'
    //│       │              └─────────────────────────────────────────── array (property) ; Use [] To access the array element 'elementOneWithAnObject'
    //│       └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── property (object) ; Use -> To access the property 'propertyArray'
    //└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── object ; Use -> To access the property 'anotherObject'

//Array
echo $array["arrayElement"]["anotherElement"]->object->property["element"];
    //├───┘ ├────────────┘  ├──────────────┘   ├────┘  ├──────┘ ├───────┘
    //│     │               │                  │       │        └── array element ; 
    //│     │               │                  │       └─────────── property (array) ; Use [] To access the array element 'element'
    //│     │               │                  └─────────────────── property (object) ; Use -> To access the property 'property'
    //│     │               └────────────────────────────────────── array element (object) ; Use -> To access the property 'object'
    //│     └────────────────────────────────────────────────────── array element (array) ; Use [] To access the array element 'anotherElement'
    //└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── array ; Use [] To access the array element 'arrayElement'

I hope this gives you a rough idea how you can access arrays and objects, when they are nested in each other.

Note:

If it is called an array or object depends on the outermost part of your variable. So [new StdClass] is an array even if it has (nested) objects inside of it and $object->property = array(); is an object even if it has (nested) arrays inside.
And if you are not sure if you have an object or array, just use gettype().

Don't get yourself confused if someone uses another coding style than you:

 //Both methods/styles work and access the same data
 echo $object->anotherObject->propertyArray["elementOneWithAnObject"]->property;
 echo $object->
        anotherObject
        ->propertyArray
        ["elementOneWithAnObject"]->
        property;

 //Both methods/styles work and access the same data
 echo $array["arrayElement"]["anotherElement"]->object->property["element"];
 echo $array["arrayElement"]
     ["anotherElement"]->
         object
   ->property["element"];

Arrays, Objects and Loops

If you don't just want to access a single element you can loop over your nested array / object and go through the values of a particular dimension.

For this you just have to access the dimension over which you want to loop and then you can loop over all values of that dimension.

As an example we take an array, but it could also be an object:

Array (
    [data] => Array (
            [0] => stdClass Object (
                    [propertyXY] => 1
                )    
            [1] => stdClass Object (
                    [propertyXY] => 2
                )   
            [2] => stdClass Object (
                    [propertyXY] => 3                   
               )    
        )
)

If you loop over the first dimension you will get all values from the first dimension:

foreach($array as $key => $value)

Means here in the first dimension you would only have 1 element with the key($key) data and the value($value):

Array (  //Key: array
    [0] => stdClass Object (
            [propertyXY] => 1
        )
    [1] => stdClass Object (
            [propertyXY] => 2
        )
    [2] => stdClass Object (
            [propertyXY] => 3
        )
)

If you loop over the second dimension you will get all values from the second dimension:

foreach($array["data"] as $key => $value)

Means here in the second dimension you would have 3 element with the keys($key) 0, 1, 2 and the values($value):

stdClass Object (  //Key: 0
    [propertyXY] => 1
)
stdClass Object (  //Key: 1
    [propertyXY] => 2
)
stdClass Object (  //Key: 2
    [propertyXY] => 3
)

And with this you can loop through any dimension which you want no matter if it is an array or object.

Analyse `var_dump()` / `print_r()` / `var_export()` output

All of these 3 debug functions output the same data, just in another format or with some meta data (e.g. type, size). So here I want to show how you have to read the output of these functions to know/get to the way how to access certain data from your array/object.

Input array:

$array = [
    "key" => (object) [
        "property" => [1,2,3]
    ]
];

var_dump() output:

array(1) {
  ["key"]=>
  object(stdClass)#1 (1) {
    ["property"]=>
    array(3) {
      [0]=>
      int(1)
      [1]=>
      int(2)
      [2]=>
      int(3)
    }
  }
}

print_r() output:

Array
(
    [key] => stdClass Object
        (
            [property] => Array
                (
                    [0] => 1
                    [1] => 2
                    [2] => 3
                )

        )

)

var_export() output:

array (
  'key' => 
  (object) array(
     'property' => 
    array (
      0 => 1,
      1 => 2,
      2 => 3,
    ),
  ),
)

So as you can see all outputs are pretty similar. And if you now want to access the value 2 you can just start from the value itself, which you want to access and work your way out to the "top left".

1. We first see, that the value 2 is in an array with the key 1

// var_dump()
array(3) {
  [0]=>
  int(1)
  [1]=>
  int(2)    // <-- value we want to access
  [2]=>
  int(3)
}

// print_r()
Array
(
    [0] => 1
    [1] => 2    // <-- value we want to access
    [2] => 3
)

// var_export()
array (
  0 => 1,
  1 => 2,    // <-- value we want to access
  2 => 3,
)

This means we have to use [] to access the value 2 with [1], since the value has the key/index 1.

2. Next we see, that the array is assigned to a property with the name property of an object

// var_dump()
object(stdClass)#1 (1) {
  ["property"]=>
  /* Array here */
}

// print_r()
stdClass Object
(
    [property] => /* Array here */
)

// var_export()
(object) array(
    'property' => 
  /* Array here */
),

This means we have to use -> to access the property of the object, e.g. ->property.

So until now, we know that we have to use ->property[1].

3. And at the end we see, that the outermost is an array

// var_dump()
array(1) {
  ["key"]=>
  /* Object & Array here */
}

// print_r()
Array
(
    [key] => stdClass Object
        /* Object & Array here */
)

// var_export()
array (
  'key' => 
  /* Object & Array here */
)

As we know that we have to access an array element with [], we see here that we have to use ["key"] to access the object. We now can put all these parts together and write:

echo $array["key"]->property[1];

And the output will be:

Don't let PHP troll you!

There are a few things, which you have to know, so that you don't spend hours on it finding them.

"Hidden" characters
Sometimes you have characters in your keys, which you don't see on the first look in the browser. And then you're asking yourself, why you can't access the element. These characters can be: tabs (\t), new lines (\n), spaces or html tags (e.g. </p>, <b>), etc.
As an example if you look at the output of print_r() and you see:
```
Array ( [key] => HERE ) 
```
Then you are trying to access the element with:
```
echo $arr["key"];
```
But you are getting the notice:
Notice: Undefined index: key
This is a good indication that there must be some hidden characters, since you can't access the element, even if the keys seems pretty correct.
The trick here is to use var_dump() + look into your source code! (Alternative: highlight_string(print_r($variable, TRUE));)
And all of the sudden you will maybe see stuff like this:
```
array(1) {
    ["</b>
key"]=>
    string(4) "HERE"
}
```
Now you will see, that your key has a html tag in it + a new line character, which you didn't saw in the first place, since print_r() and the browser didn't showed that.
So now if you try to do:
```
echo $arr["</b>\nkey"];
```
You will get your desired output:
```
HERE
```

Never trust the output of print_r() or var_dump() if you look at XML

You might have an XML file or string loaded into an object, e.g.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> 
<rss> 
    <item> 
        <title attribute="xy" ab="xy">test</title> 
    </item> 
</rss>

Now if you use var_dump() or print_r() you will see:

SimpleXMLElement Object
(
    [item] => SimpleXMLElement Object
    (
        [title] => test
    )

)

So as you can see you don't see the attributes of title. So as I said never trust the output of var_dump() or print_r() when you have an XML object. Always use asXML() to see the full XML file/string.

So just use one of the methods shown below:

echo $xml->asXML();  //And look into the source code

highlight_string($xml->asXML());

header ("Content-Type:text/xml");
echo $xml->asXML();

And then you will get the output:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss> 
    <item> 
        <title attribute="xy" ab="xy">test</title> 
    </item> 
</rss>

For more information see:

General (symbols, errors)

Reference — What does this symbol mean in PHP?
Reference - What does this error mean in PHP?
PHP parse/syntax errors; and how to solve them

Property name problems

How can I access a property with an invalid name?
How to access object properties with names like integers or invalid property names?

How can i read this stdClass object in php?

leagues is an object, not an array, so you need to use -> to access the property. And since it's a number rather than an identifier, you have to wrap the property name in braces.

echo $data->api->leagues->{"1"}->league_id;

Access property in stdClass Object

Because the ModuleAccountInfo property is an array, you'll either need to use a specific index

echo $modules->ModuleAccountInfo[0]->ServerName;

or loop

foreach ($modules->ModuleAccountInfo as $moduleAccountInfo) {
    echo $moduleAccountInfo->ServerName;
}

PHP - Cannot access array in stdclass object

Your authors_summary[0] is an array, so you cannot use -> object pointer, you must call it as array:

$authors = $book->authors_summary[0]['name'];

Get value of array stdClass Object

Each element in the "charges" array is an object. A different syntax is used to refer to the members of the object:

//for an array
echo $someArray['someValue'];

//for an object
echo $someObject->someValue;
echo $someObject->getSomeValue()

Therefore, this is the way for you:

echo $return->data->charges[0]->code;

Or, step by step:

var_dump($return);
var_dump($return->data);
var_dump($return->data->charges);
var_dump($return->data->charges[0]);
var_dump($return->data->charges[0]->code);
var_dump($return->data->charges[0]->code->billetDetails);
var_dump($return->data->charges[0]->code->billetDetails->bankAccount);

How to get object property from each object in an array?

The fastest way is simply looping (foreach, for, while). Using callback functions will incur unnecessary overhead.

I would look to see if there's a way to create the list via the code that is building the initial array of objects.

How to Access a Property of an Object (Stdclass Object) Member/Element of an Array