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Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2014 11:41:02 +0400
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Subject: Allow arbitrary expressions when using instanceof operator
From: drgomesp@gmail.com (Daniel Ribeiro)

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Good morning, internals!

I would like to present to you an idea that I have for a syntax improvement
for PHP.

The basic idea is to allow arbitrary expressions when using the instanceof
operator. Currently, the second operand can only be a constant reference or
a string:

$foo instanceof stdClass;

What I want to implement is the ability to allow arbitrary expressions on
the second operand, so instead of having to write something like this:

$className = 'stdClass';
$foo instanceof $className;

We could write something like this:

$foo instanceof ($bar->getClassName());

I've been working with Nikita Nefedov on this improvement, and we managed
to reach a very simple way to implement it, and it looks pretty good so far.

Currently, I don't have a VCS account, and eventually I want to open a
formal RFC for this, but I first wanted to discuss this with you guys to
see the impressions on it and suggestions as well.

Regarding BC breaks, there would be none from what I can see so far -
hopefully someone more experienced will be able to point my any.

So, what do you think?

Cheers!

Daniel Ribeiro
http://danielribeiro.org

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