#45024 [NEW]: Its not a bug, its a feature, but a problem.

From: tobias at gaszmann dot de Operating system: WIN32 and Linux PHP version: 5.2.6 PHP Bug Type: Feature/Change Request Bug description: Its not a bug, its a feature, but a problem. Description: ------------ Associative Arrays loose their "string-but-numbers-only-keys" when being merged. array_something["34"]="hello 34"; will get lost when being array_merged. array_something["34_ID"]="hello 34"; will be ok when being array_merged. I know this is most likely a feature, but it really did threw me off and took a while to get down to. To me this is an unwanted behavior. Even more so, as you cannot force the array to remain associative, even not by "(string)" or settype, as you can see in the demo-code. Thank you! Tobias Gassmann Reproduce code: --------------- $array_one=array(); $array_one["one"] = "Database-Entry with UID='one'"; $array_one["2_uid"] = "Database-Entry with UID='2_uid'"; $array_one["ID_3"] = "Database-Entry with UID='ID_3'"; print_r($array_one); $array_two=array(); $array_two["four"] = "Database-Entry with UID='four'"; $array_two["5"] = "Database-Entry with UID='5'"; $string_six="6"; $array_two["$string_six"] = "Database-Entry with UID='6'"; $string_seven="7"; settype($string_seven,"string"); $array_two["$string_seven"] = "Database-Entry with UID='7'"; $array_two["ID_8"] = "Database-Entry with UID='ID_8'"; print_r($array_two); $array_three = array_merge($array_one,$array_two); print_r($array_three); Expected result: ---------------- I would have expected for all keys to remain what they are. Actual result: -------------- The keys "5", "6" and "7" got lost, although I declared them as strings. -- Edit bug report at http://bugs.php.net/?id=45024&edit=1 -- Try a CVS snapshot (PHP 5.2): http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=45024&r=trysnapshot52 Try a CVS snapshot (PHP 5.3): http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=45024&r=trysnapshot53 Try a CVS snapshot (PHP 6.0): http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=45024&r=trysnapshot60 Fixed in CVS: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=45024&r=fixedcvs Fixed in release: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=45024&r=alreadyfixed Need backtrace: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=45024&r=needtrace Need Reproduce Script: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=45024&r=needscript Try newer version: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=45024&r=oldversion Not developer issue: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=45024&r=support Expected behavior: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=45024&r=notwrong Not enough info: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=45024&r=notenoughinfo Submitted twice: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=45024&r=submittedtwice register_globals: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=45024&r=globals PHP 4 support discontinued: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=45024&r=php4 Daylight Savings: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=45024&r=dst IIS Stability: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=45024&r=isapi Install GNU Sed: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=45024&r=gnused Floating point limitations: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=45024&r=float No Zend Extensions: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=45024&r=nozend MySQL Configuration Error: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=45024&r=mysqlcfg