Newsgroups: php.internals
Path: news.php.net
Xref: news.php.net php.internals:17060
Mailing-List: contact internals-help@lists.php.net; run by ezmlm
Message-ID: <42C54F98.20003@iamjochem.com>
Date: Fri, 01 Jul 2005 16:13:44 +0200
User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0.2 (Windows/20050317)
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: Derick Rethans <derick@php.net>
Cc: Pawel Bernat <asm@asm.flynet.pl>, internals@lists.php.net
References: <42C32829.60500@iamjochem.com> <20050701151327.A2920@vlo>	<42C54445.7070106@iamjochem.com> <Pine.LNX.4.62.0507011542350.14983@localhost>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.62.0507011542350.14983@localhost>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [Fwd: [PHP] constant() - php5]
From: jochem@iamjochem.com (Jochem Maas)

Derick Rethans wrote:
> On Fri, 1 Jul 2005, Jochem Maas wrote:
> 
> 
>>echo constant('CNST');
>>
>>when:
>>
>>echo CNST;
>>
>>only triggers an E_NOTICE.
>>(assuming, in both cases that CNST is not defined).
>>
>>IMHO it should at most trigger an E_NOTICE.
> 
> 
> Did you compare the output of the two statements? 

I did.

> echo constant('CNST');
> shows nothing (except the warning)
> 
> echo CNST;
> shows "CNST" (and a notice).
> 
> This makes perfect sense to me to differentiate between them like this.

ok - agreed that the echo behaviour is logical - but I wasn't actually
pertaining to the echo behaviour (and what was being echo'ed wasn't relevant to my
original question).

my point is that using a constant directly in your code when that constant doesn't exist
only causes an E_NOTICE but passing a string to constant() when a constant of the given
name doesn't exist causes an E_WARNING.

I would either expect both to cause the same level of error OR that trying to
use an undefined constant directly in code would cause a lower level of error.

but if you say the error output behaviour is expected/correct/desired then I'm
happy to except it (and adjust my expectations accordingly)
- if you (anyone) could explain why (because I don't grok the logic behind
this behaviour) I would be very grateful, maybe it will bring me one step closer
to being able to call myself a real programmer. :-/

anyway thanks for taking the time to reply,
I gather that you, Derick (amongst others!), have a plate full of PHP work
in the form of unicode and date related stuff (which I am very much looking
forward to!) - i.e. you are busy-busy, time is short, etc etc.

kind rgds,
Jochem


> 
> Derick
>