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PHP Manual

## Comparing Objects

In PHP 5, object comparison is more complicated than in PHP 4 and more in accordance to what one will expect from an Object Oriented Language (not that PHP 5 is such a language).

When using the comparison operator (==), object variables are compared in a simple manner, namely: Two object instances are equal if they have the same attributes and values, and are instances of the same class.

On the other hand, when using the identity operator (===), object variables are identical if and only if they refer to the same instance of the same class.

An example will clarify these rules.

Example #1 Example of object comparison in PHP 5

`<?php
function bool2str($bool)
{
if ($bool === false) {
return 'FALSE';
} else {
return 'TRUE';
}
}
function compareObjects(&$o1, &$o2)
{
echo 'o1 == o2 : ' . bool2str($o1 == $o2) . "\n";
echo 'o1 != o2 : ' . bool2str($o1 != $o2) . "\n";
echo 'o1 === o2 : ' . bool2str($o1 === $o2) . "\n";
echo 'o1 !== o2 : ' . bool2str($o1 !== $o2) . "\n";
}
class Flag
{
public $flag;
function Flag($flag = true) {
$this->flag = $flag;
}
}
class OtherFlag
{
public $flag;
function OtherFlag($flag = true) {
$this->flag = $flag;
}
}
$o = new Flag();
$p = new Flag();
$q = $o;
$r = new OtherFlag();
echo "Two instances of the same class\n";
compareObjects($o, $p);
echo "\nTwo references to the same instance\n";
compareObjects($o, $q);
echo "\nInstances of two different classes\n";
compareObjects($o, $r);
?>`

The above example will output:

    Two instances of the same class
    o1 == o2 : TRUE
    o1 != o2 : FALSE
    o1 === o2 : FALSE
    o1 !== o2 : TRUE

    Two references to the same instance
    o1 == o2 : TRUE
    o1 != o2 : FALSE
    o1 === o2 : TRUE
    o1 !== o2 : FALSE

    Instances of two different classes
    o1 == o2 : FALSE
    o1 != o2 : TRUE
    o1 === o2 : FALSE
    o1 !== o2 : TRUE

> Note:

> Extensions can define own rules for their objects comparison (==).

Object Cloning
Type Hinting
Classes and Objects
PHP Manual