PHP: Get Acces To Private Variable In Class - php

Question

I've been doing a project in PHP for the last few hours and I have encountered into a problem.
The problem is I don't know how to access private variables in a class and I can't find it online.
Example:
<?php
class Example{
private $age;
public function __construct() {
$age = 14;
$this->checkAge();
}
private function checkAge() {
if($this->$age > 12)
echo "welcome!";
}
}
$boy = new Example();
?>
As far as I know, I should be able to access the variable with $this->$age but it isn't working.
Thank you.
EDIT: Got it working with help of the awesome stackoverflooooooooow community, this is how a working one looks.
<?php
class Example{
private $age;
public function __construct() {
$this->age = 14;
$this->checkAge();
}
private function checkAge() {
if($this->age > 12)
echo "welcome!";
}
}
$boy = new Example();
?>

Answer 1

Look at this approach.
first: create Entity that stores and retrieves data inside of private $attributes array, and with magic __set(), __get() You can also do like: $object->variable = 123
second: extend Entity with Human class and add some function specific to child class (for example hasValidAge()):
<?php
class Entity {
private $attributes;
public function __construct($attributes = []) {
$this->setAttributes($attributes);
}
public function setAttribute($key, $value) {
$this->attributes[$key] = $value;
return $this;
}
public function setAttributes($attributes = []) {
foreach($attributes AS $key => $value) {
$this->setAttribute($key, $value);
}
}
public function getAttribute($key, $fallback = null) {
return (isset($this->attributes[$key]))?
$this->attributes[$key] : $fallback;
}
public function __get($key) {
return $this->getAttribute($key);
}
public function __set($key, $value) {
$this->setAttribute($key, $value);
}
}
class Human extends Entity {
public function __construct($attributes = []) {
$this->setAttributes($attributes);
$this->checkAge();
}
public function hasValidAge() {
return ($this->getAttribute('age') > 12)? true : false;
}
}
$boy = new Human(['name' => 'Mark', 'age' => 14]);
if($boy->hasValidAge()) {
echo "Welcome ".$boy->name."!";
}
?>
p.s. I've removed echo "Welcome!" part from constructor because it's not cool to do echo from model object, in our example Human is model of Entity.