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Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2022 17:03:27 +0000
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To: Rowan Tommins <rowan.collins@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Revisiting RFC: Engine Warnings -- Undefined array
 index
From: craig@craigfrancis.co.uk (Craig Francis)

On 13 Dec 2022, at 15:45, Rowan Tommins <rowan.collins@gmail.com> wrote:
> Although presumably they return null rather than an empty string =
precisely so that users can check if the value was provided, without =
providing an extra method equivalent to isset($_GET['q']), e.g.
>=20
> [...]
>=20
> For cases where you don't need that distinction, Laravel, Symfony, and =
CakePHP all allow a default to be passed as the second parameter.


Yep, that's right... but it's not easy to know if that distinction is =
needed for every single variable (why it's easier to work around this =
issue at the sinks, as Rector now does).

I assume the next step is for PHP is to deprecate null coercion for all =
contests; e.g. concat ('Search: ' . $search), comparisons ('' !=3D =
null), arithmetic, and the remaining functions like =
print()/echo()/sprintf('%s')... and then deprecate all other forms of =
coercion (e.g. 5 + '3')... because that will be fun :-)

Craig