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Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2020 16:33:07 +0100
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To: PHP internals <internals@lists.php.net>
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Subject: Deprecate ReflectionParameter::isArray() and friends
From: nikita.ppv@gmail.com (Nikita Popov)

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Hi internals,

I've put up https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/5209 to deprecate the
following reflection methods:

 * ReflectionParameter::isArray()
 * ReflectionParameter::isCallable()
 * ReflectionParameter::getClass()

These APIs have been superseded by ReflectionParameter::getType() since PHP
7.0. Types introduced since that time are not available through the old
APIs. The behavior of these methods becomes increasingly confusing with
additional type system extensions. With the addition of union types in PHP
8:

 * isArray() will return true if the type is array or ?array, but not any
other union type.
 * getClass() will return a ReflectionClass for T|int etc, as long as the
union only contains a single type. T1|T2 will return null.

There is really no reasonable behavior for these methods in the presence of
union types; we should start phasing them out.

One point I'm not sure about is whether we want to deprecate
ReflectionParameter::allowsNull() as well. Logically this method belongs on
ReflectionType (and does in fact exist there), but the way it is formulated
is still compatible with union types, so leaving it alone is a possibility.

Regards,
Nikita

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