Question on arrays as properties

Hi, Am I correct in saying that a class property cannot be initialized to an array? Looking at zend_declare_property it clearly states that Internal zvals cant be arrays. So how would I go about creating the following inherited property in all my subclasses if my core class has this property? class ZObject { protected $_props = array(); . } class ZString { public function __construct() { $this->setProperty($name, $value) } public function setProperty($name, $value) { $this->_props['value']; } } In other words, how would I create a property that is an array (in C) where that property is available to all my subclasses WITHOUT initializing it manually in the __construct, which would force each subclass constructor to call its parent (while good design, I'd prefer not to have this constraint). Thanks Bob Silva