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Date: Mon, 20 Apr 2026 19:04:55 +0200
To: Larry Garfield <larry@garfieldtech.com>
Cc: php internals <internals@lists.php.net>
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] [Discussion] array_get and array_has functions
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From: tim@bastelstu.be (=?UTF-8?Q?Tim_D=C3=BCsterhus?=)

Hi

Am 2026-04-20 17:18, schrieb Larry Garfield:
> Just to make sure we're talking about the same thing here.  Tim, you're 
> suggesting that this:
> 
> $a = ['foo' => 'bar'];
> $val = array_path_get($a, ['foo', 'bar', 'baz']);
> 
> Should error rather than returning null?

Yes.

> If the array were clearly, consistently, and properly structured, we 
> could reliably just do $a['foo']['bar'] and move on with life.
> […]
> So in that sort of case, I'm not sure it's useful to distinguish 
> between "There is no baz key on the array at foo.bar" and "foo.bar is a 
> string, not an array, wat?" […]

The goal of the RFC is replacing `$a['foo']['bar']` where the *path is 
dynamic*. Quoting right from the introduction of the RFC:

> When the structure of the array is known in advance and the exact 
> element to retrieve is hardcoded, existing PHP syntax works well […]

And quoting further from the introduction:

> array_path_get() retrieves a value from a deeply nested array and 
> returns a default value if the path does not exist.

I'm arguing that a “(value at) path does not exist” is something 
fundamentally different from “value encountered on path cannot be 
traversed further”.

> converting to an object

I agree that the correct solution in the general case is “use a proper 
object mapper” (such as Valinor) and don't see much personal value in 
having the proposed functions. But if they exist, I would want them to 
behave as safely as possible and that includes erroring if they cannot 
make sense of the data. Emitting a Warning when encountering an 
improperly typed value across the path would also work for me, but I 
suppose that others won't be in favor of *that* :-)

Best regards
Tim Düsterhus