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Date: Fri, 1 Oct 2010 18:45:44 +0200
Message-ID: <AANLkTik-QWKba1A0dg1ipeV+fz8+=DHGpminW8DM_MU+@mail.gmail.com>
To: Adam Harvey <aharvey@php.net>
Cc: PHP internals <internals@lists.php.net>
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Expose compare_function() to userspace
From: hannes.magnusson@gmail.com (Hannes Magnusson)

On Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 16:44, Adam Harvey <aharvey@php.net> wrote:
> Well, while I'm sending e-mails...
>
> Unrelated to the Comparable RFC, are there any objections to adding a
> function that simply wraps compare_function()? It's depressingly
> common to end up writing a construct like the following in comparison
> callbacks, so I think we might as well encapsulate the pattern in an
> actual function:
>
> if ($a < $b) {
> =A0return -1;
> }
> elseif ($a > $b) {
> =A0return 1;
> }
> return 0;

I'm a bit confused...

Are you proposing a new PHP function to check if 2 integers are equal?
The usecase being a callback function for u*sort()?

What happens when it gets passed an string? or an object with a
__toString() ? the string "100$ USD"?

I am a bit skeptical here..
Sure, I have written that code snippet millions of times, but I have
also written that between() snippet million times..
Don't think it deserves to become a PHP core function though.
When I write the function I can atleast control what happens with
non-ints.. like if ($a instanceof ValueObject) { $a->getNumeric() ..

Can't see the point of adding the trillionth "helper" function into PHP.

-Hannes