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Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2006 12:32:48 +0100
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Subject: Unexpected "silent" type-cast with initialized but un-set members
From: fangel@nable.dk (Morten Fangel)

Hi,

Look at the following example:
---
<?php
class Foo {
  public $bar;
  function __construct() {
    $this->bar->baz = 'blah';
  }
}
$foo = new Foo();
print_r($foo);
?>
--

It results in:
---
Foo Object
(
    [bar] => stdClass Object
        (
            [baz] => blah
        )
)
---

Foo->bar is never declared as anything but "public" and is therefor 
"type-less" (is there a proper term for this?).
As soon as I try to assign Foo->bar->baz, then Foo->bar is cast to an 
stdObject and the baz property is set.

This is pretty much what you would expect, but IMHO this should generate an 
E_NOTICE because you are using a non-object as an object..

Is this just my opinion?

Morten Fangel // fangel