Online PHP editor | output for AbQ2s

<?php function doSerialize($obj) { $data = $obj->__serialize(); // produce a string out of the data array return $data; } function doUnserialize($class, $data) { // $data will contain a string with all information about class, self-references etc $new = (new ReflectionClass($class))->newInstanceWithoutConstructor(); // this happens before calling __unserialize internally for self refferences $data['selfref'] = $new; return $class::__unserialize($new, $data); } class Test { public $prop; public $selfref; function __construct() { $this->prop = 'prop'; $this->selfref = $this; } public function __serialize(): array { return ['prop' => $this->prop]; } public static function __unserialize(self $new, array $data): self { $new->prop = $data['prop']; $new->selfref = $data['selfref']; return $new; } } class Test2 { public $prop; public $selfref; function __construct() { $this->prop = 'prop'; $this->selfref = $this; } public function __serialize(): array { return ['prop' => $this->prop]; } public static function __unserialize(self $new, array $data): self { $new = (new ReflectionClass(self::class))->newInstanceWithoutConstructor(); $new->prop = $data['prop']; $new->selfref = $new; return $new; } } $a1 = new Test; $adata = doSerialize($a1); $a2 = doUnserialize('Test', $adata); var_dump($a2, $a2 === $a2->selfref); $b1 = new Test2; $bdata = doSerialize($b1); $b2 = doUnserialize('Test2', $bdata); var_dump($b2, $b2 === $b2->selfref);