Attributes on property groups

Probably easier/simpler to deprecate (then remove) property declaration
groups, no?

Hi internals,

Currently, placing an attribute on property (or constant) groups is not
allowed:

class Foo {
#[NonNegative]
public int $x, $y, $z;
}
// Fatal error: Cannot apply attributes to a group of properties

This is a case that was not explicitly mentioned in the RFC and we decided
to be conversative when landing the initial implementation.

However, this restriction seems pretty arbitrary to me, and I think we
should remove it. While there is some potential ambiguity as to whether the
attribute applies to all properties or only the first one, I think the
general expectation is that it should apply to all properties, just like
the property type does.

PR to allow this: https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/6186

Any thoughts on this?

Regards,
Nikita

Hi internals,

Currently, placing an attribute on property (or constant) groups is not
allowed:

class Foo {
#[NonNegative]
public int $x, $y, $z;
}
// Fatal error: Cannot apply attributes to a group of properties

This is a case that was not explicitly mentioned in the RFC and we decided
to be conversative when landing the initial implementation.

However, this restriction seems pretty arbitrary to me, and I think we
should remove it. While there is some potential ambiguity as to whether the
attribute applies to all properties or only the first one, I think the
general expectation is that it should apply to all properties, just like
the property type does.

PR to allow this: https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/6186

Any thoughts on this?

Regards,
Nikita

I don't know if it's safe to change so close to RC; I'd be fine with leaving it for a version since grouping is in practice so rare. If you decide to change it now, however, I agree that applying to all items in the group is the least-surprising approach.

--Larry Garfield

Hi Nikita,

Hi internals,

Currently, placing an attribute on property (or constant) groups is not
allowed:

class Foo {
    #[NonNegative]
    public int $x, $y, $z;
}
// Fatal error: Cannot apply attributes to a group of properties

This is a case that was not explicitly mentioned in the RFC and we decided
to be conversative when landing the initial implementation.

However, this restriction seems pretty arbitrary to me, and I think we
should remove it. While there is some potential ambiguity as to whether the
attribute applies to all properties or only the first one, I think the
general expectation is that it should apply to all properties, just like
the property type does.

PR to allow this: https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/6186

Any thoughts on this?

That seems like a good idea and doesn't seem like an ABI change. I'm surprised this was a special case in the original implementation.
I wouldn't consider it a BC break if code that was previously a CompileError no longer threw a CompileError.

The attribute node occurs before property modifiers such as private static, which already pretty clearly apply
to all elements in an attribute group, not just the first element.

Regards,

• Tyson

Currently, placing an attribute on property (or constant) groups is not
allowed:

This is a case that was not explicitly mentioned in the RFC and we decided
to be conversative when landing the initial implementation.

Conservative is a good default, but as Tyson pointed out, nobody is
confused about visibility modifiers applying to the entire group, I don't
believe they'd be confused about attribute application.
((Though I am curious what phpdoc syntax says here.))

However, this restriction seems pretty arbitrary to me, and I think we
should remove it. While there is some potential ambiguity as to whether the
attribute applies to all properties or only the first one, I think the
general expectation is that it should apply to all properties, just like
the property type does.

Agreed. The limitation seems arbitrary and unnecessary. Call this a
refinement of the feature previously landed, and let's get it into 8.0.

-Sara