Newsgroups: php.internals
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Date: Mon, 1 Dec 2025 21:52:11 +0100 (CET)
To: BohwaZ <php@bohwaz.net>, PHP internals <internals@lists.php.net>
Message-ID: <1493950126.431906.1764622331766@email.ionos.de>
In-Reply-To: <20251201211236.566237a1@platypus>
References: <20251201211236.566237a1@platypus>
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Change output of gettype?
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From: mails@thomasbley.de (Thomas Bley)



> BohwaZ <php@bohwaz.net> hat am 01.12.2025 21:12 CET geschrieben:
>=20
> =20
> Hi all,
>=20
> PHP 8.5 has deprecated the following type names:
> - integer
> - double
> - boolean
> - binary
>=20
> But the gettype() function still returns integer, double and boolean
> instead of int, float and bool.
>=20
> This inconsistency is quite confusing for new developers (and even older
> ones).
>=20
> I understand that changing the return of gettype might break a lot of
> existing code, so maybe it's not a good idea (yet).
>=20
> But maybe we could add a parameter to gettype, for example:
>=20
> gettype(mixed $value, bool $strict =3D false): string
>=20
> If true, then it would return the "new" canonical names. And then in
> the next version emit a depreciation notice if $strict is not supplied.
>=20
> And then in PHP 9 maybe change the default return of gettype, but still
> allow to pass $strict =3D false, so that upgrading the existing code bas=
e
> would just be a matter of doing a regexp replace of gettype(...) to
> gettype(..., false).
>=20
> Adding a depreciation notice if $strict is not supplied would make
> things just painful for everyone I think though.
>=20
> It's a small thing but it seems like having the same canonical names
> everywhere would make things more consistent.
>=20
> Or the cheap solution would be to just add the $strict parameter
> and update the gettype documentation to say that the types returned
> by default are not the "new" scalar and passing $strict is needed in
> order to match what "new" PHP is using.
>=20
> Cheers everyone.

Hello,

thank you! To me it makes sense and improves consistency.
Instead of returning a String it would be also possible to return an Enum =
but that would more likely be a new function.

There were previous rfcs for new functions:
https://wiki.php.net/rfc/var_type
https://wiki.php.net/rfc/var_info

Best Regards
Thomas