$args->has_children not working with start_el()

Question

I just resolved this issue! Woo hoo! The thing is that using var_dump($args) shows a lot stuff like so:

object(stdClass)#152 (16) { ["menu"]=> object(WP_Term)#145 (10) { ["term_id"]=>
int(2) ["name"]=> string(9) "Main menu" ["slug"]=> string(9) "main-menu"
["term_group"]=> int(0) ["term_taxonomy_id"]=> int(2) ["taxonomy"]=> string(8)
"nav_menu" ["description"]=> string(0) "" ["parent"]=> int(0) ["count"]=> int(12)
["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } ["container"]=> string(0) "" ["container_class"]=>
string(0) "" ["container_id"]=> string(0) "" ["menu_class"]=> string(4) "menu"
["menu_id"]=> string(0) "" ["echo"]=> bool(true) ["fallback_cb"]=> string(12)
"wp_page_menu" ["before"]=> string(0) "" ["after"]=> string(0) "" ["link_before"]=>
string(0) "" ["link_after"]=> string(0) "" ["items_wrap"]=> string(4) "%3$s"
["depth"]=> int(0) ["walker"]=> object(themeslug_walker_nav_menu)#151 (4) {
["tree_type"]=> array(3) { [0]=> string(9) "post_type" [1]=> string(8) "taxonomy"
[2]=> string(6) "custom" } ["db_fields"]=> array(2) { ["parent"]=> string(16)
"menu_item_parent" ["id"]=> string(5) "db_id" } ["max_pages"]=> int(1)
["has_children"]=> bool(true) } ["theme_location"]=> string(0) "" }

Searching through this dump you can clearly see ["has_children"]=> bool(true) but the thing is that it isn’t part of $args object! In fact it is part of object which is held under "walker" value. This is more obvious when you indent a bit output like so:

object(stdClass)#152 (16) {
    ["menu"]=> object(WP_Term)#145 (10) {
        ["term_id"]=> int(2)
        ["name"]=> string(9) "Main menu"
        ["slug"]=> string(9) "main-menu"
        ["term_group"]=> int(0)
        ["term_taxonomy_id"]=> int(2)
        ["taxonomy"]=> string(8) "nav_menu"
        ["description"]=> string(0) ""
        ["parent"]=> int(0)
        ["count"]=> int(12)
        ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw"
    }
    ["container"]=> string(0) ""
    ["container_class"]=> string(0) ""
    ["container_id"]=> string(0) ""
    ["menu_class"]=> string(4) "menu"
    ["menu_id"]=> string(0) ""
    ["echo"]=> bool(true)
    ["fallback_cb"]=> string(12) "wp_page_menu"
    ["before"]=> string(0) ""
    ["after"]=> string(0) ""
    ["link_before"]=> string(0) ""
    ["link_after"]=> string(0) ""
    ["items_wrap"]=> string(4) "%3$s"
    ["depth"]=> int(0)
    ["walker"]=> object(themeslug_walker_nav_menu)#151 (4) {
        ["tree_type"]=> array(3) {
            [0]=> string(9) "post_type"
            [1]=> string(8) "taxonomy"
            [2]=> string(6) "custom"
        }
        ["db_fields"]=> array(2) {
            ["parent"]=> string(16) "menu_item_parent"
            ["id"]=> string(5) "db_id"
        }
        ["max_pages"]=> int(1)
        ["has_children"]=> bool(true)
    }
    ["theme_location"]=> string(0) ""
}

Now you can clearly see that to access has_children property you need to call this line:

$args->walker->has_children

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