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To: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Bj=F6rn_Larsson?= <bjorn.x.larsson@telia.com>, "Andrew
 Gromov" <andrewgrom@rambler.ru>, Peter Bowyer <phpmailinglists@gmail.com>
CC: PHP internals <internals@lists.php.net>
Thread-Topic: [PHP-DEV] [RFC][VOTE] Deprecate curly brace syntax for accessing
 array elements and string offsets
Thread-Index: AQHVMYirNfxB7kSeak+vM8JqgzmjCqa5A+gAgAIIBgCAADeX9w==
Date: Fri, 5 Jul 2019 01:48:58 +0000
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 <CAJvSBVOR_B2+3bJ6XOxQqn3hPALviTV3AdX7Z-RK+ZOumSsyPQ@mail.gmail.com>,<b84eab85-8513-6255-69a9-67baeb9736d5@telia.com>
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC][VOTE] Deprecate curly brace syntax for accessing
 array elements and string offsets
From: theodorejb@outlook.com (Theodore Brown)

On Thu, July 4, 2019 at 5:26 PM Bj=F6rn Larsson <bjorn.x.larsson@telia.com>=
 wrote:=0A=
=0A=
> Den 2019-07-03 kl. 17:25, skrev Peter Bowyer:=0A=
>=0A=
> > Thanks for taking the time to push forward this RFC.=0A=
> >=0A=
> > I found the earlier discussion at https://externals.io/message/104744,=
=0A=
> > which I hadn't seen. Like others, I would have chosen to keep {} for=0A=
> > string offsets to make it clearer, though I have not used {} in my=0A=
> > code for a decade. Was any consideration given to a split vote,=0A=
> > voting on the array and string deprecations separately?=0A=
> >=0A=
> > For others interested, the history of this deprecation going back to=0A=
> > 2005 is found at https://externals.io/message/38153=0A=
>=0A=
> Hi,=0A=
>=0A=
> I have the same question regarding split vote. In my eyes the=0A=
> array case is a no-brainer, but for string access maybe not...=0A=
=0A=
=0A=
Good question. I did consider whether it would make sense to only=0A=
deprecate curly brace offset access for arrays and not strings. The=0A=
problem with this is that it wouldn't solve the issue of confusion=0A=
outlined in the RFC.=0A=
=0A=
Unless the bracket syntax for string offset access was also=0A=
deprecated, users would still be left to question whether the curly=0A=
brace syntax behaves differently in certain circumstances, if one=0A=
alternative performs better than the other, if there is a scoping=0A=
related difference, or when the curly brace syntax should be used=0A=
instead of the normal bracket syntax for string offset access.=0A=
=0A=
=0A=
> Would it be possible to compare the string access only for both=0A=
> curly & straight braces and the same for array access?=0A=
=0A=
I updated my script to list all the unique variable names referenced=0A=
in the output of Nikita's analysis of the top 2k Composer packages:=0A=
https://gist.github.com/theodorejb/ba35fc8f72df8823e07c5f3b51870e00.=0A=
=0A=
The most frequent variable name is `$string`, and from numerous other=0A=
variable names it does seem that the majority of curly brace usages=0A=
are on strings (other frequent variable names include `$code`,=0A=
`$Bytestring`, `$chrs`, `$text`, `$str`, `$numberstring`, and many=0A=
similar examples). I also dug into the repositories for a bunch of=0A=
the packages, and most of the curly braces uses appear to be in older=0A=
code without any type declarations (which may explain why so many=0A=
variable names include a type).=0A=
=0A=
Best regards,=0A=
Theodore=