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Date: Mon, 6 Nov 2023 15:15:22 +0100
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To: David Gebler <davidgebler@gmail.com>
Cc: php internals <internals@lists.php.net>
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [Discussion] Variable Type Declaration Before Usage
From: landers.robert@gmail.com (Robert Landers)

On Mon, Nov 6, 2023 at 3:08=E2=80=AFAM David Gebler <davidgebler@gmail.com>=
 wrote:
>
> On Sun, Nov 5, 2023 at 1:37=E2=80=AFPM Oladoyinbo Vincent <oladoyinbov@gm=
ail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Hello Internals,
> >
> > I was wondering if php could introduce this feature or if any experienc=
ed C
> > dev here can work on the implementation of this feature.
> >
> >
> I think this is a much bigger issue than bikeshedding over syntax. The id=
ea
> of typed variables has been discussed a few times in recent years but the
> roadblocks have been efficiency of any possible implementation, BC in
> respect of places type hinting can already be used and the overall
> usefulness / desirability of the feature. It's one of those things that's
> been filled in reasonably well by third party static analysis tools. Tbh
> I'd be more interested in an official static analyzer than more type chec=
ks
> at runtime.


It's also worth adding that many times, certain functions cannot be
chained elegantly or the nesting level gets out of hand, making
reusing variables a way to handle that:

$name =3D implode(' ', array_map(ucfirst(...), $name));

might be more readable to write as:

$name =3D array_map(ucfirst(...), $name);
$name =3D implode(' ', $name);

In this case, $name turns from an array to a string. Having to come up
with unique enough variable names just to satisfy type-checking would
be rather annoying (and it is in other languages).