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<title>Introduction</title>
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<div class="next" style="text-align: right; float: right;"><a href="language.oop5.basic.html">The Basics</a></div>
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<h2 class="title">Introduction</h2>
<p class="para">
Starting with PHP 5, the object model was rewritten to allow for better
performance and more features. This was a major change from PHP 4. PHP 5
has a full object model.
</p>
<p class="para">
Among the features in PHP 5 are the inclusions of
<a href="language.oop5.visibility.html" class="link">visibility</a>,
<a href="language.oop5.abstract.html" class="link">abstract</a> and
<a href="language.oop5.final.html" class="link">final</a> classes and methods,
additional <a href="language.oop5.magic.html" class="link">magic methods</a>,
<a href="language.oop5.interfaces.html" class="link">interfaces</a>,
<a href="language.oop5.cloning.html" class="link">cloning</a> and
<a href="language.oop5.typehinting.html" class="link">typehinting</a>.
</p>
<p class="para">
PHP treats objects in the same way as references or handles, meaning that
each variable contains an object reference rather than a copy of the entire
object. See
<a href="language.oop5.references.html" class="link">Objects and References</a>
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<div class="tip"><strong class="tip">Tip</strong><p class="simpara">See also the
<a href="userlandnaming.html" class="xref">Userland Naming Guide</a>.</p></div>
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