#44029 [Opn->Bgs]: Suggestion for new "substring exists" function

ID: 44029 Updated by: rasmus@php.net Reported By: anon at example dot com -Status: Open +Status: Bogus Bug Type: Feature/Change Request PHP Version: 5.2.5 New Comment: We already have strstr() Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2008-02-03 07:46:09] whatever at yahoo dot com I entered this suggestion previously as bug #43825 -- which got closed as Bogus with no note. Please explain why it is "bogus" if closing again. If tony2001@php.net thinks there is no usability problem with detecting the simple existence of a substring in a string, he should examine the commentary in http://us3.php.net/manual/en/function.strpos.php. If there's some other function that already does what I'm suggesting please indicate what it is. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2008-02-03 07:43:02] anon at example dot com Description: ------------ What we often need to test for is just whether a substring exists or not. For example this is very common when examining a user agent -- is "MSIE" there or not? Currently you can use strpos, but you have to be careful to test only with two specific formulations, using the strict equivalency operators: if (strpos($x, $y) === FALSE) or if (strpos($x, $y) !== FALSE) That "anti-FALSE" approach is generally awkward, and if you use == or != by mistake you'll have ambiguity with a substring position of number 0. It would be handy and much less prone to syntax mistakes, to have a dedicated "string exists" function which returns only TRUE or FALSE. This might be "strex" or "strpres" ("string present"). Plus an equivalent case sensitive version -- striex or stripres. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at http://bugs.php.net/?id=44029&edit=1