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Date: Mon, 08 Jun 2015 23:11:54 +0200
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Subject: Array dereferencing of scalars
From: cmbecker69@gmx.de (Christoph Becker)

The behavior of dereferencing scalars as if they were arrays or strings
is arguable:

  <?php
  $foo = 42;
  $foo['bar']; // => NULL

This happens without notice or warning, whereas the array dereferencing
of objects results in a fatal error:

  <?php
  $foo = new stdClass;
  $foo['bar']; // Fatal error: Cannot use object of type stdClass as array

There are several bug reports and feature requests regarding this
behavior, the most interesting being #54556[1] and #64194[2].  The
former has a patch attached, for the latter there is a PR[3].

Would throwing a notice or a warning on array deferencing scalars
be acceptable for PHP 7.0, or does this need an RFC?

[1] <https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=54556>
[2] <https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=64194>
[3] <https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/1269>

-- 
Christoph M. Becker