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From: "M. Strobel" <sorry_no_mail_here@nowhere.dee>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.php
Subject: Re: loose thinking
Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:32:52 +0100
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Am 24.01.2012 14:04, schrieb "=C3=81lvaro G. Vicario":
> El 24/01/2012 11:57, M. Strobel escribi=C3=B3/wrote:
>> I hate this sloppiness of PHP:
>>
>> strobel@s114-intel:~>  php -a
>> Interactive shell
>>
>> php>  $a[null] =3D 'you are Nothing';
>> php>  var_dump($a);
>> array(1) {
>>    [""]=3D>
>>    string(15) "you are Nothing"
>> }
>> php>  $i=3Dnull;
>> php>  $a[$i] =3D 'you are Nothing';
>> php>  var_dump($a);
>> array(1) {
>>    [""]=3D>
>>    string(15) "you are Nothing"
>> }
>> php>  var_dump(key($a));
>> string(0) ""
>>
>> There is no difference between an empty string and null in array index=
ing. That is
>> stupid. Why does the language not just respect my definitions?
>=20
> Because your make your definitions fit in something that already have a=
 previous
> definition. String keys must be integers or strings, as documented:
>=20
> http://es.php.net/manual/en/language.types.array.php#language.types.arr=
ay.syntax.array-func
>=20
>=20
> It's the same situation where you pass a float to a function that's def=
ined to expect
> a string: your param will be cast to the target data type.
>=20
> As about the array key definition, a key is an identifier so I think it=
's reasonable
> to make it a string.
>=20
> Having arrays where keys can be any arbitrary data type looks like an (=
ahem)
> interesting idea but you'll have to implement it yourself. If it can ac=
tually be done
> in pure PHP, the tool is possibly the ArrayIterator interface:
>=20
> http://es.php.net/manual/en/class.arrayiterator.php
>=20
>=20
>=20
Okay I see it is well documented. I just started testing.

I am angry about it because not even isset() respects the null value here=
=2E I think it
makes more sense this way: isset($a[null]) should return false, because t=
here is no
null index.

The point is that the designers of PHP (if you can talk about design here=
) probably
meant to help programmers in not making all these hideous type distinctio=
ns, but the
outcome is you have  to be really careful about loose comparison and unwa=
nted type
conversion, having to write even more if constructs.

/Str.