Can we make str_(starts|ends)_with variadic?

2 months ago by Hans Henrik Bergan — view source

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Can we make str_(starts|ends)_with variadic?
PR: https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/18825
Code like

if (str_starts_with($url, "http://") || str_starts_with($url, "https://")) {
    // url
}
if (str_ends_with($filename, ".pdf") || str_ends_with($filename,
".doc") || str_ends_with($filename, ".docx")) {
    // document
}
$isValidExtension = false;
foreach ($validExtensions as $needle) {
    if (str_ends_with($str, $needle)) {
        $isValidExtension = true;
        break;
    }
}
if ($isValidExtension) {
    // valid extension
}

could then be replaced with

if (str_starts_with($url, "http://", "https://")) {
    // url
}
if (str_ends_with($filename, ".pdf", ".doc", ".docx")) {
    // document
}
if(str_ends_with($str, ...$validExtensions){
    // valid extension
}

Fwiw Python support str.endswith((".pdf", ".doc", ".docx"))

2 months ago by Niels Dossche — view source

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I think I like it, it seems convenient and I had to do stuff like this in the past using a loop.
I don't immediately see a technical reason why this would be a bad idea.

Kind regards
Niels

2 months ago by Christian Schneider — view source

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Am 10.06.2025 um 21:46 schrieb Hans Henrik Bergan hans@loltek.net:

Can we make str_(starts|ends)_with variadic?

if (str_starts_with($url, "http://", "https://")) {
   // url
}
if (str_ends_with($filename, ".pdf", ".doc", ".docx")) {
   // document
}
if(str_ends_with($str, ...$validExtensions){
   // valid extension
}

Hmm, being old-fashioned I would probably do this with a regex:
str_starts_with($url, "http://", "https://") => preg_match('#^https?://#', $url)
str_ends_with($filename, ".pdf", ".doc", ".docx") => preg_match('#.(pdf|doc|docx)$#', $filename)
str_ends_with($str, ...$validExtensions) => preg_match('#.(' . implode('|', array_map(fn($v) => preg_quote($v, '#'), $ validExtensions)) . ')$#', $str)

And even though the variadic versions could easily be implemented in user-land I see your point about your version being clearer and less error-prone, even though my old brain is worried about a hidden loop (but that's an implementation detail and can be avoided if one really wants to).

Another way of thinking about it would be
array_any($validExtensions, fn($ext) => str_ends_with($str, $ext))
which is quite concise as well and avoids reimplementing iteration for individual functions separately.

Which leaves me +-0 on this,

Chris

2 months ago by tim@bastelstu.be — view source

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Am 2025-06-11 11:58, schrieb Christian Schneider:

Am 10.06.2025 um 21:46 schrieb Hans Henrik Bergan hans@loltek.net:
Can we make str_(starts|ends)_with variadic?
if (str_starts_with($url, "http://", "https://")) {
   // url
}
if (str_ends_with($filename, ".pdf", ".doc", ".docx")) {
   // document
}
if(str_ends_with($str, ...$validExtensions){
   // valid extension
}
[…]

Which leaves me +-0 on this,

Chris

I agree that the examples are not particularly well-chosen, because the
correct implementation for the two examples would be:

 if (\in_array(\pathinfo($filename, PATHINFO_EXTENSION), ['pdf',

'doc', 'docx'], true)) { }

and

 if (\in_array(\Uri\Rfc3986\Uri::parse($url)?->getScheme(), ['http',

'https'], true)) { }

and then leaving it up to the code developers / the engien to possibly
optimize \in_array() into match() or similar when only a small
number of values need to be matched.

Best regards
Tim Düsterhus