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Reply-To: james@asgrim.com
Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2022 07:29:58 +0000
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To: Vincent Langlet <misterdeviling@gmail.com>
Cc: PHP Internals List <internals@lists.php.net>
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] RFC: Stop to automatically cast numeric-string to int
 when using them as array-key
From: james@asgrim.com (James Titcumb)

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On Wed, 29 Dec 2021, 15:42 Vincent Langlet, <misterdeviling@gmail.com>
wrote:

>
> I recently discovered that an array was automatically casting
> numeric-string keys to int if it was possible.
>

Having had to track down bugs numerous times over the years, I completely
agree this is unexpected behaviour, and would be in favour of it being
amended. It is quite a BC break indeed, and both Orklah (Psalm) and Ondrej
Mirtes (PHP Stan) agree that the issue is that it's a difficult issue to
identify with static analysis (see
https://twitter.com/OndrejMirtes/status/1478971968636567552 for some
thoughts).

As always with type juggling related discussions in PHP, I expect any RFC
to be contentious and heavily discussed ;)

I expect the main detractors would be the BC breaks, and people might not
think the BC break is worth the pain.

Just thinking out loud, being able to identify an array type might be a way
forward here (using "syntax" already in use by static analysis tools in
docblocks, for familiarity), e.g.

private array<string, mixed> $property;

This might "turn off" the automatic type juggling behaviour, for example.
If the existing strict_types=1 mode is on, this might fail:

$this->property[3] = "hi";

If strict_types=0 or not declared, the key would be cast to a string.

That said, I know there has been contentious discussion on this and the
related topic of generics multiple times, so don't really want to stir up a
hornet's nest there.

Great idea, and I'd love to see this fixed, given the countless hours I've
wasted trying to track down bugs that are a result of this. But I fear that
this would be a difficult one to push through the RFC process, sadly. I
hope I'm proven wrong though!

Thanks
James

>

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