# PHP6 an unicode in practice - wanted behaviour for array indices?

- Thread: https://externals.io/message/30195
- Original archive: https://news-web.php.net/php.internals/30195
- Started by Robert Lemke on 2007-06-15T10:25:07+00:00
- Messages: 2
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## #30195 — Robert Lemke — 2007-06-15T10:25:07+00:00

URL: https://externals.io/message/30195#30195

Hi folks,

I am currently developing the next major version of TYPO3, a PHP  
based content management system. As we take advantage of the new  
Unicode features (among other things) it will be completely based on  
and rely on PHP6 with unicode.semantics turned on. (Sidenode: My veto  
would be that unicode.semantics would be turned on by default, but I  
trust on that you take the right decision and then we'll adapt to  
it). We bypassed all backward compatibility issues by just starting  
from scratch again ...

Anyway, using the latest CVS version, I stumbled over a behaviour I  
didn't expect and I'd like to ask you if that is a wanted behaviour  
or a bug.

Consider the following code (unicode semantics = on):

    preg_match('/(?P<character>\w),/', 'a,b,c,d', $matches);
    echo (isset($matches['character']) ? 'yes ' : 'no ');

The expected output is "yes", but it returns "no". The reason is that  
the index "character" in the
array returned by preg_match seemst to be a binary string, not  
unicode as I expected:

    preg_match('/(?P<character>\w),/', 'a,b,c,d', $matches);
    echo (isset($matches[(binary)'character']) ? 'yes ' : 'no ');
    echo (isset($matches[(unicode)'character']) ? 'yes ' : 'no ');

This code outputs "yes no".

A bit worse even:

preg_match('/(?P<character>\w),/', 'a,b,c,d', $matches);
echo (isset($matches[(unicode)'character']) ? 'yes ' : 'no ');
extract($matches);
echo(gettype($character) . ' ');
$matches = compact($character);
echo (isset($matches[(unicode)'character']) ? 'yes ' : 'no ');

The output is "no unicode no".

Sorry if I understood something wrong here, but to me it looks like a  
little inconsistency.

Cheers,
Robert

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## #30204 — Andrei Zmievski — 2007-06-17T01:08:52+00:00

URL: https://externals.io/message/30195#30204 · In reply to: #30195

Yeah, this should be fixed. I'll try to do it over the weekend.

-Andrei




> Hi folks,
>
> I am currently developing the next major version of TYPO3, a PHP  
> based content management system. As we take advantage of the new  
> Unicode features (among other things) it will be completely based  
> on and rely on PHP6 with unicode.semantics turned on. (Sidenode: My  
> veto would be that unicode.semantics would be turned on by default,  
> but I trust on that you take the right decision and then we'll  
> adapt to it). We bypassed all backward compatibility issues by just  
> starting from scratch again ...
>
> Anyway, using the latest CVS version, I stumbled over a behaviour I  
> didn't expect and I'd like to ask you if that is a wanted behaviour  
> or a bug.
>
> Consider the following code (unicode semantics = on):
>
>    preg_match('/(?P<character>\w),/', 'a,b,c,d', $matches);
>    echo (isset($matches['character']) ? 'yes ' : 'no ');
>
> The expected output is "yes", but it returns "no". The reason is  
> that the index "character" in the
> array returned by preg_match seemst to be a binary string, not  
> unicode as I expected:
>
>    preg_match('/(?P<character>\w),/', 'a,b,c,d', $matches);
>    echo (isset($matches[(binary)'character']) ? 'yes ' : 'no ');
>    echo (isset($matches[(unicode)'character']) ? 'yes ' : 'no ');
>
> This code outputs "yes no".
>
> A bit worse even:
>
> preg_match('/(?P<character>\w),/', 'a,b,c,d', $matches);
> echo (isset($matches[(unicode)'character']) ? 'yes ' : 'no ');
> extract($matches);
> echo(gettype($character) . ' ');
> $matches = compact($character);
> echo (isset($matches[(unicode)'character']) ? 'yes ' : 'no ');
>
> The output is "no unicode no".
>
> Sorry if I understood something wrong here, but to me it looks like  
> a little inconsistency.
>
> Cheers,
> Robert