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Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2003 12:11:42 -0700
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To: Timm Friebe <thekid@thekid.de>
Cc: internals@lists.php.net
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Re: variable_exists() patch
From: waboring@3gstech.com (walt boring)

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Timm Friebe wrote:

>On Thu, 2003-08-14 at 13:18, nicos@php.net wrote:
>[...]
>  
>
>>Hmm, I thought a variable is set even if its value is NULL?
>>    
>>
>
>Unfortunately it is not:
>
>thekid@friebes:~ > php -r '$a= NULL; var_dump(isset($a));'
>bool(false)
>
>- Timm
>
>
>  
>
exactly why isset() is either
1) a bad name for the function or
2) 'broken'

Since the isset() documentation explicitly warns that it will return 
false if
the value is set and is NULL,  one could say that option 2 is invalid.  So,
in my opinion isset() is really a bad choice for a name of that 
functionality,
and why something like variable_exists() is needed.  

Maybe it could just be called exists() ?

I'm sure changing the functionality of isset() isn't really an option at 
this
point for all of the existing apps that use it.

Walt

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