$this can be cast to array. But when doing so, it prefixes the property names/new array keys with certain data depending on the property classification. Public property names are not changed. Protected properties are prefixed with a space-padded '*'. Private properties are prefixed with the space-padded class name...
<?php
class test
{
public $var1 = 1;
protected $var2 = 2;
private $var3 = 3;
static $var4 = 4;
public function toArray()
{
return (array) $this;
}
}
$t = new test;
print_r($t->toArray());
?>
This is documented behavior when converting any object to an array (see </language.types.array.php#language.types.array.casting> PHP manual page). All properties regardless of visibility will be shown when casting an object to array (with exceptions of a few built-in objects).
To get an array with all property names unaltered, use the 'get_object_vars($this)' function in any method within class scope to retrieve an array of all properties regardless of external visibility, or 'get_object_vars($object)' outside class scope to retrieve an array of only public properties (see: </function.get-object-vars.php> PHP manual page).
