Object cloning in PHP

PHP object cloning allows you to create a new object that is an exact copy of an existing object, including all of its properties and methods. This can be useful when you need to create multiple instances of an object with the same initial state.

To clone an object in PHP, you use the clone keyword followed by the object you want to clone. When an object is cloned, a new instance of the class is created, and all of the properties of the original object are copied to the new object. However, any properties that are themselves objects will still refer to the same objects as the original object.

You can customize the cloning process by defining a magic method called __clone() in your class. This method will be called when the object is cloned and can be used to modify the cloned object’s properties or behavior. It’s important to note that cloning an object in PHP creates a shallow copy, meaning that any objects referenced by the cloned object will still be shared between the original and cloned objects. If you need to create a deep copy, you’ll need to manually clone any referenced objects as well.