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Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2012 20:35:57 +0200
To: "internals@lists.php.net PHP internals" <internals@lists.php.net>
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Subject: PR 186: external protocols and locale independent string conversion
From: lars@strojny.net (Lars Strojny)

Hi everybody,

I'm currently working on https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/186, which =
fixes a problem with PostgreSQL when passing a float to =
pg_query_params() with a locale setting that uses "," as a decimal =
point. pg_query_params() uses convert_to_string(), which uses %G as a =
format string for floats, which is locale sensitive (and therefore =
converts e.g. in hr_HR or de_DE to "1,1"). The proposed fix is to =
introduce a new API convert_to_cstring() in the Zend Engine to allow =
converting types to C-locale strings.

This kind of fix is very likely needed in other places, where floats are =
converted using convert_to_string(). I haven=92t found time to try e.g. =
mysqlnd, but I suspect we=92ll find similar issues there. I don=92t =
think the proposed workaround of burden users with explicitly converting =
floats to a numeric representation is a good solution and I think we =
should fix bugs like that in places they occur.

What=92s your take on the proposed fix of introducing =
convert_to_cstring() and using it where external protocols require a =
locale insensitive float conversion?

cu,
Lars=