Predefined Interfaces
PHP Manual

The Serializable interface

Introduction

Interface for customized serializing.

Classes that implement this interface no longer support __sleep() and __wakeup(). The method serialize is called whenever an instance needs to be serialized. This does not invoke __destruct() or has any other side effect unless programmed inside the method. When the data is unserialized the class is known and the appropriate unserialize() method is called as a constructor instead of calling __construct(). If you need to execute the standard constructor you may do so in the method.

Interface synopsis

Serializable {
/* Methods */
abstract public string serialize ( void )
abstract public mixed unserialize ( string $serialized )
}

Example #1 Basic usage

<?php
class obj implements Serializable {
    private 
$data;
    public function 
__construct() {
        
$this->data "My private data";
    }
    public function 
serialize() {
        return 
serialize($this->data);
    }
    public function 
unserialize($data) {
        
$this->data unserialize($data);
    }
    public function 
getData() {
        return 
$this->data;
    }
}

$obj = new obj;
$ser serialize($obj);

$newobj unserialize($ser);

var_dump($newobj->getData());
?>

The above example will output something similar to:

string(15) "My private data"

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Predefined Interfaces
PHP Manual