Thank you for taking the time to write to us, but this is not
a bug. Please double-check the documentation available at
http://www.php.net/manual/ and the instructions on how to report
a bug at http://bugs.php.net/how-to-report.php

Try this:

<?php

class CBaseClass {
	private $var = 'default';
	function get($name)
	{
		return $this->var;
	}
}

$object = new CBaseClass();
echo $object->get('name');

?>

It is quite nice to tell me to double-check the documentation, but I don't see were it is written that the name given to __get and __set methods can't correspond to private or protected members.
If it is not written, this could be nice to add that information in the documentation.
Perhaps that for a clean programmation this is not a good idea to use the same name for members and properties.
Anyway, after analisys, I found that the current implementation of __get and __set is an unsatsifactory answer to properties. It is far away from what is proposed in C#, Delphi (and of course C++ builder) or visual basic.
To my knowledge, there is no equivalent in java or C++.

This has been discussed on zend2-engine, getters and setters on 'defined' vars is a feature that a number of people would like to see..

AFAIK It just needs a voluteer to propose some code..

The behavior is absolut correct. Since the property 'var' is declared private it cannot be accessed. And also since it is a declared property there is no need for the engine to execute __call(). Both __get() and __set() are only there to handle virtual properties (aka not declared ones).

Double check #25815 and #25199

After talking with Andi, I think it's a valid issue and what needs to be done is to make accessors (__get/__set) be called on access to variables that are not visible in current context. This still would not change the fact that acessors are not called on existing variables, but invisible variables in this context would be regarded as good as unexisting.

That seems to be the best solution.

Quick suggestion:

Please consider adding the same overloading functionality (  __call() ) for private and protected methods.

Please try using this CVS snapshot:

  http://snaps.php.net/php5-latest.tar.gz
 
For Windows:
 
  http://snaps.php.net/win32/php5-win32-latest.zip

Reproduce code now returns "default" as expected.

--- Test script --
<?php
  class Foo {
    private $private_member = 'private';
    protected $protected_member = 'protected';
    public $public_member= 'public';
    
    function __get($name) {
      return $this->{$name}.' (via __get)';
    }
  }
  
  $foo= new Foo();
  var_dump($foo->private_member);
  var_dump($foo->protected_member);
  var_dump($foo->public_member);
?>

--- Output --
string(19) "private (via __get)"
string(21) "protected (via __get)"
string(6) "public"