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Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2016 12:28:17 -0600
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To: Jesse Schalken <me@jesseschalken.com>
Cc: internals <internals@lists.php.net>
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] Nullable Types
From: morrison.levi@gmail.com (Levi Morrison)

On Wed, Apr 20, 2016 at 11:55 AM, Jesse Schalken <me@jesseschalken.com> wrote:
> I read the RFC and it all sounds good to me. I appreciate the care taken to
> ensure method compatibility rules are correct, a smooth interop with =null,
> and to consider impact on union types if added later (? just becomes sugar).
>
> I'm not sure if it's been mentioned or not, but the position of the ? has
> impact on the ability to add a foo[] shorthand for generic arrays. Namely,
> if the ? is at the start, then the syntax becomes ambiguous.
>
> string[]? (nullable array of strings)
>
> string?[] (array of nullable strings)
>
> ?string[] (ambiguous, need to consult precedence rules and/or use brackets)
>
>
> I'm not sure how HHVM/Hack deals with that, or if it even has the foo[]
> shorthand.

You would write `array<?string>`; Hack doesn't have a short-hand syntax.