RFC Karma Request

Ah, I missed that. If we had ranges (e.g. $string[0..4] or $string[-1..4])
that'd work, but we don't.

Now I see some value in the function, though still perhaps not enough to
justify above and beyond strpos etc.

Davey,

Thanks for joining the conversation! That code snippet is very elegant,
and it is a superb way of checking if a string starts with or ends with a
specific character. However, it does not check if a string starts with or
ends with a specific string, containing multiple characters.

True str_begins and str_ends would do check if a string begins or ends
with a string of n characters.

Regards,

-Will

Will,

Now that we have generalized support for negative string offsets you
can now just do:

$string = "/foo/bar/bat/";
if ($string[0] === "/") { // fully-qualified path }
if ($string[-1] === "/") { // trailing "/" }

This avoids the overhead of a function call, arguably is as
expressive, and a lot more functional (e.g. offset -2).

• Davey

Thanks for replying David.

Thanks for the questions, its good to elaborate on things some. I'll
address each question here:

1. No, I guess this is my first time reaching out to the community.
   I had gone with str_begins and str_ends because it fit some of the
   current naming approaches. I could see an argument for
   strstarts/strends, strbegins/strends, or startsWith/endsWith. I'm
   flexible with the exact naming.

2. I don't think performance-wise it would be a big improvement over
   using strpos, preg_match, or substr. However, I think it might be an
   improvement readability-wise. Right now people either use somewhat
   confusing code, like strpos or substr, or they implement their own
   user-defined str_starts function. I think the benefit in terms of
   readability and usability justifies the addition of two new
   functions to the namespace.

3. This functionality is doable with the current implementation.
   However, part of the goal of languages or tools is to make it easy
   to do common, routine tasks. Python, Java, Ruby, C# and JavaScript
   all provide this functionality. So I am sure people would find it
   useful in PHP.

4. Right now, the way I have it implemented, it is case-sensitive.
   If people wanted, it could be implemented to take an optional
   boolean parameter called case_sensitive which defaults to true. I
   could make that change pretty easily, if I did that the function
   headers would be:

boolean str_starts (string $str , str $search_value [, bool
$case_sensitive = true ] )
boolean str_ends (string $str , str $search_value [, bool
$case_sensitive = true ] )

I like the idea of doing that instead of having separate,
case-insensitive, functions because it helps keep the name space
less cluttered.

I hope this has provided some helpful information. Please get back
with me with your thoughts.

Thanks,
Will

Questions:

Have you talked with this list about the terms of you suggestions?
(like str_begins, str_starts, strstarts, strbegins, str_ends,
strends...)
Is yes, sorry, I do not received this topic before.

There some valid performance advantage over strpos()?

And about the "market" for this new function?
I mean, about users really need a new function like it on core.

And about the case sensitiblity?
Should have some function like stribegins() or will be an argument?

In general, I like this implementation, but I like to know about you
in this questions.
I don't know the policy about implements new functions on "str
namespace".

Thanks!

2016-07-26 15:41 GMT-03:00 will@wkhudgins.info:
Hello,

I would like to submit an RFC for adding a str_begins and str_ends
function,
in relation to https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=67035 and
https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=50434. I've added those functions on
my
local PHP copy. I would like to make an RFC and a PR for adding it
to the
core PHP copy.

Thanks,

Will