Call private methods and private properties from outside a class in PHP

Question

I want to access private methods and variables from outside the classes in very rare specific cases.

I\'ve seen that this is not be possible although introspection

Answer 1

Here's a variation of the other answers that can be used to make such calls one line:

public function callPrivateMethod($object, $methodName)
{
    $reflectionClass = new \ReflectionClass($object);
    $reflectionMethod = $reflectionClass->getMethod($methodName);
    $reflectionMethod->setAccessible(true);

    $params = array_slice(func_get_args(), 2); //get all the parameters after $methodName
    return $reflectionMethod->invokeArgs($object, $params);
}

Answer 2

EDIT: Updated to include examples of private function calls with parameters.

As of PHP 5.4, you can use the predefined Closure class to bind a method/property of a class to a delta functions that has access even to private members.

The Closure class

For example we have a class with a private variable and we want to access it outside the class:

class Foo {
    private $bar = "Foo::Bar";
    private function add_ab($a, $b) {
        return $a + $b;
    }
}

PHP 5.4+

$foo = new Foo;

// Single variable example
$getFooBarCallback = function() {
    return $this->bar;
};

$getFooBar = $getFooBarCallback->bindTo($foo, 'Foo');

echo $getFooBar(); // Prints Foo::Bar

// Function call with parameters example
$getFooAddABCallback = function() {
    // As of PHP 5.6 we can use $this->fn(...func_get_args()) instead of call_user_func_array
    return call_user_func_array(array($this, 'add_ab'), func_get_args());
};

$getFooAddAB = $getFooAddABCallback->bindTo($foo, 'Foo');

echo $getFooAddAB(33, 6); // Prints 39

As of PHP 7, you can use the new Closure::call method, to bind any method/property of an obect to a callback function, even for private members:

PHP 7+

$foo = new Foo;

// Single variable example
$getFooBar = function() {
    return $this->bar;
};

echo $getFooBar->call($foo); // Prints Foo::Bar

// Function call with parameters example
$getFooAddAB = function() {
    return $this->add_ab(...func_get_args());
};

echo $getFooAddAB->call($foo, 33, 6); // Prints 39