#38437 [NEW]: substr() - slightly change its contract

From: zizka at seznam dot cz Operating system: PHP version: 5.1.4 PHP Bug Type: Feature/Change Request Bug description: substr() - slightly change its contract Description: ------------ string substr ( string string, int start [, int length] ) Currently: If string is less than *or equal* to start characters long, FALSE will be returned. I suggest: If string is less than start characters long, FALSE will be returned. The latter is more "ideologically clean". See the behavior of analogical methods in Java, JavaScript, C, etc. E.g. I did some simple parser, where the string of the form $<anything> is expected. I wanted to get <anything>, so I did: if($s !== '' && $s[0] == '$') $s2 = substr($s, 1); Then, behaved by Java's String.substring(), I wrote: if($s2 === '') // Replace $s2 with some default value; After several minutes of searching for the bug, I noticed the fact mentioned above. Reproduce code: --------------- substr("Ahoj", 4); Expected result: ---------------- An empty string. Actual result: -------------- FALSE. -- Edit bug report at http://bugs.php.net/?id=38437&edit=1 -- Try a CVS snapshot (PHP 4.4): http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=38437&r=trysnapshot44 Try a CVS snapshot (PHP 5.2): http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=38437&r=trysnapshot52 Try a CVS snapshot (PHP 6.0): http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=38437&r=trysnapshot60 Fixed in CVS: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=38437&r=fixedcvs Fixed in release: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=38437&r=alreadyfixed Need backtrace: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=38437&r=needtrace Need Reproduce Script: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=38437&r=needscript Try newer version: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=38437&r=oldversion Not developer issue: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=38437&r=support Expected behavior: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=38437&r=notwrong Not enough info: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=38437&r=notenoughinfo Submitted twice: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=38437&r=submittedtwice register_globals: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=38437&r=globals PHP 3 support discontinued: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=38437&r=php3 Daylight Savings: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=38437&r=dst IIS Stability: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=38437&r=isapi Install GNU Sed: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=38437&r=gnused Floating point limitations: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=38437&r=float No Zend Extensions: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=38437&r=nozend MySQL Configuration Error: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=38437&r=mysqlcfg