overloading var_export() to customize

Question

I've a persistent library that should store objects in a database. So var_export() should store the type, pk, and db-version only. At the reverse it should recreated the object from the database using the key. In other words:

class Person
{
  use PersistTrait; // $id, $store, __get, __set

  protected string $name;
  protected string $website;

  public function __construct(string $id)
  {
    // connect to db
    // retrieve object content by $id
  }
  public static function __set_state($array_with_only_id): Person
  {
    // check version
    return new self( $array_with_only_id['id'] ); // exception when not found etc.
  } 
}

$person = new \Person();
$person->name = 'ElePHPant ElePHPantsdotter';
$person->website = 'https://php.net/elephpant.php';
$person->store();

$c = var_export($person);
// $c should only contain "
Person::__set_state(
  [
    'id'=>'pk-value-of-person',
    'version'=>'db-version'
  ]
);

Is this possible?

Answer 1

The var_export() aims one very specific use case: convert a construct (array, object) in a language specific string form that can be used to recreate the object. Much like Serializable::serialize() and Serializable::unserialize() combo but with the class type included. It was not meant to be used in a more generic use case.