# ord() on binary strings - Thread: https://externals.io/message/18723 - Original archive: https://news-web.php.net/php.internals/18723 - Started by Derick Rethans on 2005-09-08T19:55:04+00:00 - Messages: 7 - Reply by email to internals@lists.php.net - More for agents: search with https://externals.io/search.md?q={query} · JSON API at https://externals.io/api · documentation at https://externals.io/llms.txt --- ## #18723 — Derick Rethans — 2005-09-08T19:55:04+00:00 URL: https://externals.io/message/18723#18723 Hei, I committed a patch to make `ord()` work on IS_BINARY strings earlier today (http://news.php.net/php.cvs/33862). Andrei doesn't like that because the description in the docs says "ord -- Return ASCII value of character", which in his opinion doesn't make much sense for binary strings. Other then `ord()`, there is no suitable function to show the ordinal value of a byte in a IS_BINARY string though. Comments? Derick -- Derick Rethans http://derickrethans.nl | http://ez.no | http://xdebug.org --- ## #18728 — Ilia Alshanetsky — 2005-09-08T21:20:43+00:00 URL: https://externals.io/message/18723#18728 · In reply to: #18723 It makes perfect sense to me that `ord()` would work on binary strings. When we return an ASCII value we don't limit the range returned, it can be 1 or 255. So, I see no reason to cripple this function and prevent it from working on binary data. Ilia --- ## #18733 — Andi Gutmans — 2005-09-08T22:34:23+00:00 URL: https://externals.io/message/18723#18733 · In reply to: #18723 Did Andrei have a reason besides the docs? Even without IS_UNICODE/IS_BINARY it sounds like the docs could use tuning anyway, no? Andi At 12:55 PM 9/8/2005, Derick Rethans wrote: >Hei, > >I committed a patch to make `ord()` work on IS_BINARY strings earlier >today (http://news.php.net/php.cvs/33862). Andrei doesn't like that >because the description in the docs says "ord -- Return ASCII value of >character", which in his opinion doesn't make much sense for binary >strings. Other then `ord()`, there is no suitable function to show the >ordinal value of a byte in a IS_BINARY string though. Comments? > >Derick > >-- >Derick Rethans >http://derickrethans.nl | http://ez.no | http://xdebug.org --- ## #18734 — Derick Rethans — 2005-09-09T07:02:14+00:00 URL: https://externals.io/message/18723#18734 · In reply to: #18728 > It makes perfect sense to me that `ord()` would work on binary strings. > When we return an ASCII value we don't limit the range returned, it can > be 1 or 255. So, I see no reason to cripple this function and prevent it > from working on binary data. Indeed, the only thing is that you can't really talk about "ASCII" values, as binary data doesn't really have an encoding (and certainly not ascii as that's 7bits only). But IMO that's something to tune in the docs. Derick -- Derick Rethans http://derickrethans.nl | http://ez.no | http://xdebug.org --- ## #18735 — Derick Rethans — 2005-09-09T07:09:09+00:00 URL: https://externals.io/message/18723#18735 · In reply to: #18733 > Did Andrei have a reason besides the docs? Even without IS_UNICODE/IS_BINARY > it sounds like the docs could use tuning anyway, no? Andrei: The docs say "Return ASCII value of character", which doesn't make sense for binary. You can use `bin2hex()`, `bin2hex()` == `ord()` for binary. (Which is not true, as it doesn't return the ordinal value, just a two digit hex string) Derick: anyway, `ord()` always worked on string like this, seems strange to break it (and yes, it already did) Andrei: you had binary strings before? Derick: normal strings of course, but it came from a file, so it turned binary and `ord()` started failing Andrei: Then you should fix your code and convert that binary to something sensible if you are reading text Derick: it's not text, it's binary Andrei: if it's binary, why do you need to know the ascii value Derick: Because I'm converting a binary file to a C file (for the timezone database) Then he continues saying that it's Ok to break BC in unicode mode. regards, Derick -- Derick Rethans http://derickrethans.nl | http://ez.no | http://xdebug.org --- ## #18741 — Andrei Zmievski — 2005-09-09T13:41:35+00:00 URL: https://externals.io/message/18723#18741 · In reply to: #18735 My argument was that `ord()` semantics and docs say that it works on _characters_ and this simply does not make sense for the binary strings. If we really want `ord()` to work on binary type, fine, but we'd better have docs that make sense then. -Andrei > > > > > […] > > Andrei: The docs say "Return ASCII value of character", which doesn't > make sense for binary. You can use `bin2hex()`, `bin2hex()` == > `ord()` > for binary. > > (Which is not true, as it doesn't return the ordinal value, just a two > digit hex string) > > Derick: anyway, `ord()` always worked on string like this, seems > strange to break it (and yes, it already did) > Andrei: you had binary strings before? > Derick: normal strings of course, but it came from a file, so it > turned > binary and `ord()` started failing > > Andrei: Then you should fix your code and convert that binary to > something sensible if you are reading text > Derick: it's not text, it's binary > Andrei: if it's binary, why do you need to know the ascii value > Derick: Because I'm converting a binary file to a C file (for the > timezone database) > > Then he continues saying that it's Ok to break BC in unicode mode. > > regards, > Derick > > -- > Derick Rethans > http://derickrethans.nl | http://ez.no | http://xdebug.org --- ## #18743 — Ilia Alshanetsky — 2005-09-09T13:46:07+00:00 URL: https://externals.io/message/18723#18743 · In reply to: #18741 Andrei Zmievski wrote: > My argument was that `ord()` semantics and docs say that it works on > _characters_ and this simply does not make sense for the binary > strings. If we really want `ord()` to work on binary type, fine, but we'd > better have docs that make sense then. IMHO the docs say characters because up until now, a character was equivalent to a single byte in PHP. I think this is a documentation snafu, that should be addressed by updating the docs accordingly. Ilia