Newsgroups: php.internals
Path: news.php.net
Xref: news.php.net php.internals:125811
Precedence: bulk
MIME-Version: 1.0
References: <ZydAaayECTRNG8Ackhb0tDgYjmdFKnkW4p0ISWlLFP5My4CsJBR1KKTylrD14Ags2GUyBLoJPf68N6Z6LoVzjG-tru8YAbmi74W5xzSkJ8I=@gpb.moe>
In-Reply-To: <ZydAaayECTRNG8Ackhb0tDgYjmdFKnkW4p0ISWlLFP5My4CsJBR1KKTylrD14Ags2GUyBLoJPf68N6Z6LoVzjG-tru8YAbmi74W5xzSkJ8I=@gpb.moe>
Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2024 20:06:41 +0200
Message-ID: <CAPyj-LDTAeoc2hJYZs43CP+TU4FG0jAhLsx4HKsBYN0erbscjw@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] Change behaviour of array sort functions to
 return a copy of the sorted array
To: PHP internals <internals@lists.php.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
From: tovilo.ilija@gmail.com (Ilija Tovilo)

Hi Gina

On Sun, Oct 20, 2024 at 7:43=E2=80=AFPM Gina P. Banyard <internals@gpb.moe>=
 wrote:
>
> I would like to propose a short RFC to make the return value of the sort(=
) and similar functions more useful:
> https://wiki.php.net/rfc/array-sort-return-array

I think this adds two unnecessary sources of confusion:

1. What Rob already mentioned: Users may look at the signature and see
that an array is returned, and assume the argument won't get modified.

2. Is the array returned by value or by reference? I.e.

$a =3D [...];
$b =3D &sort($a);
$b[] =3D 'foo';
// Does $a get modified?

You're mentioning that:

> This behaviour is annoying as it makes writing code in a functional way m=
ore cumbersome and tedious.

It would help if there were some examples. In any case, I don't think
by-ref functions are particularly "functional" anyway.

Ilija