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Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2025 22:36:50 +0200
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] [Discussion] Add clamp function
To: Kyle Katarn <kylekatarnls@gmail.com>
Cc: Hans Krentel <hanskrentel@yahoo.de>, ocramius@gmail.com,
 PHP Internals <internals@lists.php.net>
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From: tim@bastelstu.be (=?UTF-8?Q?Tim_D=C3=BCsterhus?=)

Hi

On 8/28/25 20:26, Kyle Katarn wrote:
> Just my opinion but the function aims to provide an alternative to
> min(max()) that would be:
> - easier to read
> - faster to execute
> 
> If having many different behaviors depending on an option and so a lot of
> if-else path complexity, then it will tend to defeat the second goal. I

Adding an additional parameter to switch between 4 modes of comparison 
hardly qualifies as “a lot of if-else path complexity”. That can be done 
with a single `switch()` statement. I doubt that you can measure a 
meaningful difference in speed and if you can, then it's still possible 
to optimize based on the expected path (i.e. closed intervals).

Since a big part of your argument in favor of the clamp() function is 
“performance” (both in your reply here and in the introduction to the 
RFC): Please add meaningful benchmarks to the RFC text that show how 
much faster clamp() is actually going to be compared to alternative 
solutions.

> would add it if there is a strong interest, otherwise I'd rather stick to a
> minimalist implementation (like seen in most languages where clamp() is
> available.

Best regards
Tim Düsterhus