Req #52628 [Opn->Csd]: substr() returns false for empty string

Edit report at http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=52628&edit=1 ID: 52628 Updated by: kalle@php.net Reported by: david at grudl dot com Summary: substr() returns false for empty string -Status: Open +Status: Closed Type: Feature/Change Request Package: Strings related PHP Version: Irrelevant -Assigned To: +Assigned To: kalle Block user comment: N New Comment: I don't think it makes any sense to pass an empty string directly to substr and make it behave weirdly. Just wrap it inside an if statement to check if the string is empty if you are using userdata. In either case, calling sub string on an empty string would return nothing, simply casting it to a string makes it empty: $string = (string) substr('', 0, 2); Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2010-08-17 18:22:33] david at grudl dot com Description: ------------ substr() should not return FALSE if is used with empty string. Yes, it is documented behaviour (If $string is less than or equal to $start characters long, FALSE will be returned), but it is not expected behaviour. There is no way to use "smaller $start". Test script: --------------- substr('x', 0, 2) // returns again 'x' substr('', 0, 2) // returns FALSE but '' is expected ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=52628&edit=1