Bug #52754 [Opn->Bgs]: Array keys in $_SESSION with "!" unsets the whole array in PHP 5.3.3

Edit report at http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=52754&edit=1 ID: 52754 Updated by: aharvey@php.net Reported by: dotpointer at gmail dot com Summary: Array keys in $_SESSION with "!" unsets the whole array in PHP 5.3.3 -Status: Open +Status: Bogus Type: Bug Package: Session related Operating System: Slackware Linux 12 PHP Version: 5.3.3 Block user comment: N New Comment: I'm not too sure how or why this would have worked in 5.2, but session variables not being able to use certain characters in their names is documented behaviour, per http://php.net/session.examples.basic ​​: "The keys in the $_SESSION associative array are subject to the same limitations as regular variable names in PHP, i.e. they cannot start with a number and must start with a letter or underscore. For more details see the section on variables in this manual." Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2010-08-31 21:47:10] dotpointer at gmail dot com Description: ------------ Array keys in $_SESSION containing exclamation marks (!) does not seem to work anymore as of 5.3.3. Have tried key with different characters like #, " and £ - these worked. Using "!" in the key seems not only to be unregistered but also to make the whole $_SESSION to be unset in the next run. This worked before, as in 5.2.x. Test script: --------------- <? # (as we're talking sessions, this example need to be run 2 times to set the session data, push F5...) session_start(); $name = 'hello'; # this does work, uncomment/comment to test $name = 'hello!'; # this does not, uncomment/comment to test echo $_SESSION[$name]; $_SESSION[$name] = 'OK'; ?> Expected result: ---------------- That array keys containing exclamation marks ("!") either give a understandable error or does work as any other key. Actual result: -------------- The whole array is being totally empty if a key containing exclamation mark is entered. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=52754&edit=1