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Date: Tue, 25 Jun 2024 22:10:22 +0100
To: internals@lists.php.net
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [Early Feedback] Pattern matching
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From: imsop.php@rwec.co.uk ("Rowan Tommins [IMSoP]")



On 25 June 2024 21:24:32 BST, Rob Landers <rob@bottled=2Ecodes> wrote:
>The only way you=E2=80=99d observe this (that I can think of) is by perfo=
rming a for-each loop over the array=2E=20

There are many ways you can observe the difference between an absent key a=
nd a null value; here are just a handful off the top of my head:=20

- array_key_exists() (that's literally its purpose!)
- array_keys()
- count() (if the array held "an infinite number of nulls", we should retu=
rn infinity for every array!)
- json_encode()
- print_r(), var_dump(), var_export()
- extract()

It may be questionable to give meaning to the difference in some of these =
cases, but different it definitely is=2E=20


> If we don't like it, we can always create an RFC to treat non-existent k=
eys as an error instead of a warning=2E

I believe that is the explicit intention or desire of those who raised it =
from Notice to Warning=2E It would certainly prevent some bugs where a typo=
 leads to the wrong key being accessed=2E

Personally, I'd like to see a few use cases catered for first, like $count=
ers[$key]++ and $groups[$key][] =3D $value; Perhaps by introducing some equ=
ivalent of Python's "defaultdict"=2E Because I do agree that the current be=
haviour is useful sometimes (even if I disagree in how to describe it)=2E


Regards,
Rowan Tommins
[IMSoP]