#39904 [Com]: string -> boolean conversion of "\0" could give FALSE

ID: 39904 Comment by: dave at ifox dot com Reported By: zizka at seznam dot cz Status: Open Bug Type: Feature/Change Request PHP Version: 5.2.0 New Comment: To correct, "\0" -> FALSE has not found itself into PHP, but "0" has, and that feature should be reversed. It's not logical to assume the numerical value of alphanumeric strings in place of the programmer doing so with a numerical cast. A bug report was even submitted that a string "false" should evaluate to FALSE when converted to boolean. That won't happen, because PHP developers already know they made a mistake with the "0" hack. Hopefully in a major version release it will be reversed and all non-empty strings will evaluate to TRUE. Just like every other loosely-typed language on the planet. Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2009-04-17 23:56:47] dave at ifox dot com This is by far the worst thing that has found itself into PHP. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2006-12-20 14:46:44] zizka at seznam dot cz Description: ------------ It might be useful that (boolean)"\0" would give FALSE. E.g. MySQL's BIT(1) column type can be used to store boolean values, but now PHP converts whatever value to TRUE. Reproduce code: --------------- header('Content-Type: text/plain'); echo "\nfalse: ".ord(false); echo "\ntrue: ".ord(true); echo "\n\\0: ".(boolean)("\0"); echo "\n\\1: ".(boolean)("\1"); // ord() is here just for thoughts context... Expected result: ---------------- false: 0 true: 49 \0: 0 \1: 1 Actual result: -------------- false: 0 true: 49 \0: 1 <----- HERE \1: 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at http://bugs.php.net/?id=39904&edit=1