Newsgroups: php.internals
Path: news.php.net
Xref: news.php.net php.internals:128298
Feedback-ID: i8414410d:Fastmail
Precedence: bulk
MIME-Version: 1.0
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2025 11:04:06 -0500
To: "php internals" <internals@lists.php.net>
Message-ID: <a486d49b-76bd-480f-816e-a4cc82e35db7@app.fastmail.com>
In-Reply-To: 
 <CAMU7irKj_SyyM2kVz4kEqjDK+ucc8uRP1amJgASTFRM+V+Ld3w@mail.gmail.com>
References: 
 <CAMU7irKj_SyyM2kVz4kEqjDK+ucc8uRP1amJgASTFRM+V+Ld3w@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] Add "is_representable_as_float()" and
 "is_representable_as_int()" functions
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
From: larry@garfieldtech.com ("Larry Garfield")

On Tue, Jul 29, 2025, at 7:52 AM, Alexandre Daubois wrote:
> Hi internals,
>
> I would like to present the RFC to add the
> "is_representable_as_float()" and "is_representable_as_int()"
> functions. These functions provide developers with a way to check
> whether values can be losslessly converted between integer and
> floating-point representations.
>
> https://wiki.php.net/rfc/is-representable-as-float-int
>
> Best,
> Alexandre Daubois

This looks lovely.

Since only int, float, and string can ever be true, does it make sense to type the function parameters as `int|float|string` rather than `mixed`, to automatically exclude arrays, objects, and null?  (All of which would always be false.)

(I could probably argue either way on it, but my first inclination is yes; push the initial validation upstream.  You should always know if a variable is a primitive or not, at the very least.)

--Larry Garfield