Serializable::serialize

(PHP 5 >= 5.1.0, PHP 7)

Serializable::serialize — String representation of object

Description

abstract public string Serializable::serialize ( void )

Should return the string representation of the object.

Note:
This method acts as the destructor of the object. The __destruct() method will not be called after this method.

Parameters

This function has no parameters.

Return Values

Returns the string representation of the object or NULL

Errors/Exceptions

Throws Exception when returning other types than strings and NULL.

User Contributed Notes

crog at gustavus dot edu

2 years ago


The documentation here is somewhat misleading. Where it says "This method acts as the destructor of the object. The __destruct() method will not be called after this method," I believe the intent is not that the destructor is not run on the object itself, but that the destructor is not called /as part of the serialization process/. 

That is, the object will still be destructed as it goes out of scope as normal, but the destructor is not called as a part of the object's serialization.