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Date: Wed, 03 May 2006 01:05:41 -0500
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To: dante@lorenso.com
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Seeking 'coalesce' php internal function
From: dante@vocalspace.com ("D. Dante Lorenso")

D. Dante Lorenso wrote:
> I don't think something like this can NOT be written in userspace 
> because the 'isset' and 'empty' checks need to be run before arguments 
> can be passed to a user function or warnings will start flying.  A 
> function like this simplifies code which used to look like this:
>
>    if (!empty($_POST["postkey"])) {
>        $value = $_POST["postkey"];
>    }
>    elseif (!empty($_GET["getkey"])) {
>        $value = $_POST["getkey"];
>    }
>    elseif (!empty($default_value)) {
>        $value = $default_value;
>    }
>    else {
>        $value = "hard coded value";
>    }
>
> Into this:
>
>    $value = coalesce($_POST["postkey"], $_GET["getkey"], 
> $default_value, "hard coded value");

I mean "I DON'T think like this CAN be written in userspace".  And, yes, 
there is a bug in that code up above (around $_GET testing), but the 
'coalesce' function removes the test/set with identical values so 
removes those kinds of careless bugs.

Dante