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Date: Sun, 30 Jun 2024 16:25:16 +0200
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] [Discussion] Add bcdivmod to BCMath
To: Juliette Reinders Folmer <php-internals_nospam@adviesenzo.nl>,
 internals@lists.php.net
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 <668168A7.4040005@adviesenzo.nl>
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From: tim@bastelstu.be (=?UTF-8?Q?Tim_D=C3=BCsterhus?=)

Hi

On 6/30/24 16:16, Juliette Reinders Folmer wrote:
> Just a suggestion: what about making the returned array an associative
> array ? Like so:
> ```
> array(
>       'quotient' => 61,
>       'remainder' => 1,
> );
> ```
> 
> This would remove the need for devs to remember the order of the return
> values and would make the return value self-documenting.
> 

An associative array would combine the worst of an array (no IDE 
autocompletion, no strong typing, increased memory usage) with the worst 
of an object (no easy way to extract the values into local variables 
with array destructuring).

The example in the RFC doesn't show it, but the following makes the 
proposed API really convenient to use:

     $slicesOfPizza = new BcMath\Number(8);
     $mouthsToFeed = new BcMath\Number(3);
     [$perMouth, $slicesLeft] = $slicesOfPizza->divmod($mouthsToFeed);

Note how the order of values matches the words in the method name. First 
the result of 'div', then the result of 'mod'.

Best regards
Tim Düsterhus