What are the best practices for defining and accessing instance variables in PHP classes?

When defining and accessing instance variables in PHP classes, it is best practice to use access modifiers such as public, private, or protected to control the visibility of the variables. It is recommended to use private access modifier for instance variables to encapsulate the data and prevent direct access from outside the class. To access these variables, getter and setter methods should be used to provide controlled access to the variables. 

class MyClass {
    private $myVariable;

    public function setMyVariable($value) {
        $this->myVariable = $value;
    }

    public function getMyVariable() {
        return $this->myVariable;
    }
}

$obj = new MyClass();
$obj->setMyVariable("Hello World");
echo $obj->getMyVariable(); // Output: Hello World

Keywords

instance variables PHP classes defining accessing variables scope

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