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Date: Mon, 07 Jul 2025 10:22:20 -0600
To: "PHP Internals" <internals@lists.php.net>
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Subject: [PHP-DEV] [Discussion][RFC Idea] Cast Variables by Reference
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From: joseph+php@josephleedy.dev ("Joseph Leedy")

Hello, I'm Joseph, or Seph for short. I'm a long time listener, but a 
first-time caller. I've had an idea rattling around in my noggin for a while 
that I'd like your feedback on:

As a developer, I would like to have variables of one type cast to another 
type automatically so that I do not need to assign the variable to itself.

Instead of the following:

```php
$price = '5.0123';
...
$price = (float) $price;

var_dump($price); // Result: `float: 5.0123`
```

What if we could do this instead?

```php
$price = '5.0123';
...
(float) $price;

var_dump($price); // Result: `float: 5.0123`
```

If everyone thinks this a good idea, I would be willing to put together an 
RFC and work on the implementation myself, with guidance from an experienced 
core developer. I have no experience with C/C++, other than a brief foray 
more than twenty years ago, but I am willing to learn.

Thank you for your consideration! Also, a huge thank you to everyone who 
has made PHP what it is today! 

(**Note**: No AI was used in the writing of this message.)