[PATCH] proposal for new function (str_type) View as Markdown

Hi everyone,

I've attached a patch which adds a function that basically wraps the ctype.h
functions. It pretty much just lets you check to see if a string contains
only a certain set of characters. I think it would be very nice for input
validation, particularly for those who fear regular expressions. Here's the
prototype:

bool str_type(str subject, int type)

type is a bitmask created from a bunch of new constants (STR_TYPE_ALNUM,
STR_TYPE_ALPHA, STR_TYPE_CNTRL, STR_TYPE_DIGIT, STR_TYPE_GRAPH,
STR_TYPE_LOWER, STR_TYPE_PRINT, STR_TYPE_PUNCT, STR_TYPE_SPACE,
STR_TYPE_UPPER, STR_TYPE_XDIGIT)

If anyone is interested, there's a more exotic version at
http://www.coeus-group.com/en/uploads/php_str_type.2.diff which allows as
many parameters as you want, each of which can be either one of the above
constants or a bitmask. It's not as clean as the attached version, and the
attached version is definitely more similar to other functions, but I thought
this way would be nice for people who are intimidated by bitmasks.

If the attachment doesn't agree with anyone, it's also at
http://www.coeus-group.com/en/uploads/php_str_type.1.diff

--
Evan Nemerson
evan@coeus-group.com

--
"The greatest mistake is to imagine that the human being is an autonomous
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despotic government is nonsense, because your thoughts are never entirely
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would he have wanted to. Take away freedom of speech, and the creative
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-George Orwell

I've attached a patch which adds a function that basically wraps the

ctype.h

functions. It pretty much just lets you check to see if a string contains
only a certain set of characters. I think it would be very nice for input
validation, particularly for those who fear regular expressions. Here's

the

prototype:

A couple things:

#1 Have you looked at the ctype extension?
http://us4.php.net/manual/en/ref.ctype.php

Yeah, but I like being able to use them all at once.

#2 If a unified function is to be added (not against it per se) it should
probably be named ctype() (as the "top-level" of the ctype extension and be
placed in ext/ctype rather than in ext/standard/strings.[ch]

Agreed. Here's a new patch that does that, and renames the calls the constants
CTYPE_*

-Sara

--
Evan Nemerson
evan@coeus-group.com