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Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2023 16:46:46 +0100
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] New RFC : empty() function
From: alessandro.a.rosa@gmail.com (Alessandro Rosa)

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Thanks everybody for joining this discussion.
I appreciated a lot  the points you raised, as they are helping me to
update and improve my rfc,
whose meaning, as I hope, would look clearer than the earlier version.

Alessandro

Il giorno lun 30 ott 2023 alle ore 16:36 Lynn <kjarli@gmail.com> ha scritto=
:

> On Mon, Oct 30, 2023 at 4:21=E2=80=AFPM tag Knife <fenniclog@gmail.com> w=
rote:
>
> > >
> > > However, according to my example, the variable is defined and has its
> > > value as 0 or false, and empty() returns true anyway. I confess that
> > > I've had some problems like this, and we chose not to use empty(), as
> > > sometimes 0 or false makes sense as a valid value.
> > >
> >
> > That is exactly as the documentation explains it.
> > empty is to check if a variable is not holding a usable value.
> > 0, false, true are all valid values and show the variable is not
> > empty.
> >
> > The purpose for empty is to check for undefined variables, empty
> > arrays or empty strings.
> > eg. "", [], null or undefined.
> >
>
> This is exactly where the problem lies. Is a string with just whitespace
> empty? Why would an ArrayObject with count 0 not be considered to be empt=
y
> while an array with count 0 is? "empty" is subjective and therefore not a
> reliable function to use. Especially in legacy code I find that people us=
e
> `empty` where they should've been using `count() =3D=3D=3D 0` and have re=
sulted
> in bugs that weren't discovered until months or years later. The variatio=
ns
> of `$a =3D=3D=3D ''`, `count($a) =3D=3D=3D 0`, `! isset($a)`, and `$a =3D=
=3D=3D null` already
> check all the scenarios you need, without risking funky bugs due to how t=
he
> internal check for "falsy" values works.
>

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