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 <CADyq6s+SPJj_aGhg044XbW4KdRNYrV=bAxGX6ioMpihpg0E2SA@mail.gmail.com> <CAEPJdun=b1mtuBbAZMGAHR8Ya2Jg0xuc07Nq34TvZr75uu3=8Q@mail.gmail.com>
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Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2020 14:43:14 +0100
Message-ID: <CADyq6s+YPBSpO7WASVCEsT6rdQVQ8u1z6+ZL-042X_2ZKG_MMA@mail.gmail.com>
To: Benjamin Eberlei <kontakt@beberlei.de>
Cc: Steven Wade <stevenwadejr@gmail.com>, PHP Internals <internals@lists.php.net>
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="0000000000006d47cd059dc03918"
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC - discussion] __toArray()
From: ocramius@gmail.com (Marco Pivetta)

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On Tue, Feb 4, 2020, 14:36 Benjamin Eberlei <kontakt@beberlei.de> wrote:

>
>
> On Tue, Feb 4, 2020 at 2:10 PM Marco Pivetta <ocramius@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Linking (again) previous discussions:
>> https://externals.io/message/98539#98539
>>
>> `__toArray` as a magic function call when `(array)` cast happen is a bad
>> idea: it is a BC break, and it removes one of the very few interactions
>> (with objects) that didn't cause any side-effects (
>> https://externals.io/message/98539#98545,
>> https://externals.io/message/98539#98567)
>>
>
> I think we can't classify it as BC break, because no existing code
> implements __toArray at the moment, and hence it will not fail when this
> feature is introduced and code gets upgraded to newer versions.
>

It is a BC break because it changes the semantic of `(array) $object`: the
operation is no longer stable between two versions of the language.

Code relying on `(array)` behaviour (stable) requires additional reflection
wrappers to check if `$object` is **not** implementing `__toArray`, and
then the operation can be safely used (or an exception is to be thrown).

You can most certainly make a new operation, such as `(toArray) $object`:
the cast operator is new and isn't changing any existing behaviour.

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