PHP magic functions and "overloading"

From Doc: Overloading:

Overloading in PHP provides means to dynamically "create" properties and methods. These dynamic entities are processed via magic methods one can establish in a class for various action types.

The overloading methods are invoked when interacting with properties or methods that have not been declared or are not visible in the current scope. The rest of this section will use the terms "inaccessible properties" and "inaccessible methods" to refer to this combination of declaration and visibility.

All overloading methods must be defined as public.

Note:
None of the arguments of these magic methods can be passed by reference.

Note:
PHP's interpretation of "overloading" is different than most object oriented languages. Overloading traditionally provides the ability to have multiple methods with the same name but different quantities and types of arguments.

From PHP: Magic Methods:

The function names __construct(), __destruct(), __call(), __callStatic(), __get(), __set(), __isset(), __unset(), __sleep(), __wakeup(), __toString(), __invoke(), __set_state(), __clone() and __debugInfo() are magical in PHP classes. You cannot have functions with these names in any of your classes unless you want the magic functionality associated with them.

Caution: PHP reserves all function names starting with __ as magical. It is recommended that you do not use function names with __ in PHP unless you want some documented magic functionality.

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Property overloading only works in object context. These magic methods will not be triggered in static context. Therefore these methods should not be declared static. As of PHP 5.3.0, a warning is issued if one of the magic overloading methods is declared static.

Note:
The return value of __set() is ignored because of the way PHP processes the assignment operator. Similarly, __get() is never called when chaining assignments together like this:

 $a = $obj->b = 8;