How Can I Access Object Properties with Invalid Characters in PHP?

Accessing Object Property with Invalid Name

In PHP, it's possible to encounter objects with properties that have illegal or invalid characters, such as dashes (-). While regular property accessors fail, there are workarounds to retrieve these values.

Solution 1: Bracket Notation

To access a property with an invalid name, use bracket notation with the property name enclosed in curly braces ({}):

$object->{'todo-items'};

Solution 2: Variable Name and Concatenation

Alternatively, assign the property name to a variable and concatenate it with the $object variable:

$todolist = 'todo-items';
echo $object->$todolist;

Example:

Using the example object dump provided:

$x = (object) [
    'completed-count' => '0',
    'description' => 'Description String',
    'id' => '12345',
    'todo-items' => (object) [
        'todo-item' => (object) [
            'completed' => 'false',
            'content' => 'content string here',
            'created-on' => '2009-04-16T20:33:31Z',
            'creator-id' => '23423',
            'id' => '234',
            'position' => '1',
            'responsible-party-id' => '2844499',
            'responsible-party-type' => 'Person',
            'todo-list-id' => '234234',
        ],
    ],
];

echo $x->{'todo-items'}[0]->{'todo-item'}->content;

Additional Tip:

To convert an object to an array, you can use the code snippet provided in the question and answer:

public function toArray()
{
    $array = array();
    foreach ($this->_data as $key => $value) {
        if ($value instanceof StdClass) {
            $array[$key] = $value->toArray();
        } else {
            $array[$key] = $value;
        }
    }
    return $array;
}

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