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Date: Thu, 3 Nov 2016 15:02:08 +0000
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Subject: Proposed RFC
From: contactme@antonydandrea.com (Antony D'Andrea)

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Hi all,

First off, this is my first time e-mailing internals or even thinking about=
 submitting RFC. Please forgive me if I fail to follow some kind of convent=
ion.

In PHP 7.0, we were given the Null Coalesce operator. For example:

       echo $array['key']??"key is not set"

would be the same as:

      echo (isset($array['key'])?$array['key']:"key is not set"

This is a great feature, that makes code much cleaner.

This works on the principle that "$array['key']" is "NULL".

I would like to propose a new feature that is as clean as this but is a sli=
ghtly different use case. This would require a new operator (up for discuss=
ion, but an early idea is "?!") For example:

    echo (!is_infinite($n1/$n2)?!0);

Would output ($n1/$n2) if it is "true" and 0 if false.

Right now, the closest we have to this is ?: operator. The problem with thi=
s is that it could get very messy as you still have to do:

    echo (!is_infinite($n1/$n2)?$n1/$n2:0);

I have obviously over simplified the example. You wouldn't have a big probl=
em in this case, but if the subject of the function is much longer, it can =
become complicated very quickly.

Alternatively, a perhaps more general feature would be to just have the sam=
e functionality as the Null Coalesce, but with true/false rather than Null/=
Not Null.

Please let me know if there is something in these ideas or anyway to improv=
e them. I should also note that I would need a volunteer to implement this =
as my "C" skills are non-existent and I wouldn't have the confidence to del=
ve into the the PHP source.

Thanks for your time.

Best,

Antony D'Andrea

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