How can I check if a object is an instance of a specific class?

You can check if an object is an instance of a class with instanceof, e.g.

if($role instanceof SimpleXMLElement) {
    //do stuff
}

The following methods and operators are useful to determine whether a particular variable is an object of a specified class:

• $var instanceof TestClass: The operator “instanceof” returns true if the variable $var is an object of the specified class (here is: “TestClass”).
• get_class($var): Returns the name of the class from $var, which can be compared with the desired class name.
• is_object($var): Checks whether the variable $var is an object.

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