Bug #29992 [Com]: foreach by reference corrupts the array

Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=29992&edit=1 ID: 29992 Comment by: publcishady at gmail dot com Reported by: fletch at pobox dot com Summary: foreach by reference corrupts the array Status: Bogus Type: Bug Package: Scripting Engine problem Operating System: linux PHP Version: 5.0.1 Block user comment: N Private report: N New Comment: If you describe how it works that's not an excuse for unexpected results. I understand why the last element becomes a reference, but I don't understand why it SHOULD become a reference. That's obviously a bug for me. Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2011-07-18 05:03:24] martijn at twotribes dot com Well, it is expected by the people who designed the language perhaps, but not by me. Iterating through an array, without doing anything, shouldn't change the array. Period. If I do something similar in another language like C++, this will never be the result. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2011-07-15 11:57:04] johannes@php.net daniel, unsetting it before might also cause a wrong result. Simple example: <?php function search_element($array, &$var) { foreach ($array as &$var) { if ($condition) { return true; } } } $array=array(1,2,3,4,5,6); $var = null; search_element($array, $var); ?> This is simplified and probably no good architecture but such designs might make sense in some situations and breaking that adds a larger inconsistency than the current "surprising but consistent" behavior. martijn, Of course there is a reference at the end, absolutely expected and consistent with the language. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2011-07-13 06:48:49] martijn at twotribes dot com To elaborate of why I strongly feel this is a bug and not a 'feature': $a = array('a', 'b', 'c', 'd'); foreach ($a as &$v) { } var_dump($a); One would expect that every element of $a is a string. Well it was, up until I did that foreach-with-reference. That changed the last element into string reference: array(4) { [0]=> string(1) "a" [1]=> string(1) "b" [2]=> string(1) "c" [3]=> &string(1) "d" } The PHP guys can claim that this is correct behavior all they want, but it is fundamentally wrong from a design perspective that an array changes, without doing anything to its elements. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2011-07-13 06:37:58] martijn at twotribes dot com Can someone please promote this "bogus" status to an actual bug? It completely baffles me why something so obviously wrong, has been present in PHP for almost 7(!) years. Come on guys, fix this! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2011-07-01 06:41:47] daniel at milde dot cz I agree with Looris. This behaviour is dangerous and no one expects it. I suggest unsetting the variable BEFORE each loop. This should cause no harm. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The remainder of the comments for this report are too long. To view the rest of the comments, please view the bug report online at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=29992 -- Edit this bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=29992&edit=1