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Date: Tue, 14 Apr 2026 15:53:12 +0200
To: "Rowan Tommins [IMSoP]" <imsop.php@rwec.co.uk>
Cc: internals@lists.php.net
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] Context Managers
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From: tim@bastelstu.be (=?UTF-8?Q?Tim_D=C3=BCsterhus?=)

Hi

Am 2026-04-08 00:27, schrieb Rowan Tommins [IMSoP]:
> Personally, I'm leaning towards option 1 - the case for "break" feels 
> weak to me.

I agree here. For the example use case that is provided in the RFC, I 
feel that the `break;` is making intent much less clear. When dropping 
the comment that makes sense in the context of an RFC, but not inside a 
program, we have.

     using(file_open('records.csv', 'rw') => $fp) {
         while ($line = fgetcsv($fp) {
             if ($line[0] === $record['id']) {
                 break 2;
             }
         }

         fputcsv($fp, $record);
     }

And here I'm wondering what the “high-level” purpose of that `break;` 
is. I would either need to add a comment:

     using(file_open('records.csv', 'rw') => $fp) {
         while ($line = fgetcsv($fp) {
             if ($line[0] === $record['id']) {
                 // If the record already exists, we are done with 
processing the file.
                 break 2;
             }
         }

         fputcsv($fp, $record);
     }

or I can just use a self-explanatory variable:

     using(file_open('records.csv', 'rw') => $fp) {
         $found = false;
         while ($line = fgetcsv($fp) {
             if ($line[0] === $record['id']) {
                 $found = true;
                 break;
             }
         }

         if (!$found) {
             fputcsv($fp, $record);
         }
     }

Using a variable is also more easily extendible to a “if found then X 
else Y” situation.

A goto would also be clearer in intent, because I can give it a name and 
thus it effectively serves the purpose of a simplified comment. It's 
also easy to find where the control flow jumps by scanning for the 
label, without need to manually count control structures (which is 
particularly complicated when not all of them use braces). In fact 
jumping out of multiple control structures is explicitly documented as 
one use case on the `goto` documentation at 
https://www.php.net/manual/en/control-structures.goto.php:

> […] a common use is to use a goto in place of a multi-level break.

Insofar I don't see how the RFC's claim of “goto is generally 
discouraged, as it is less structured than break or continue” is backed 
up by evidence.

     using(file_open('records.csv', 'rw') => $fp) {
         while ($line = fgetcsv($fp) {
             if ($line[0] === $record['id']) {
                 goto record_found;
             }
         }

         fputcsv($fp, $record);
     }

     record_found:

Best regards
Tim Düsterhus