Bug #55650 [Csd->Bgs]: !empty returns false positive if subkey not set, but not if _GET is set manually

Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=55650&edit=1 ID: 55650 Updated by: cataphract@php.net Reported by: chris dot wisefool at gmail dot com Summary: !empty returns false positive if subkey not set, but not if _GET is set manually -Status: Closed +Status: Bogus Type: Bug Package: Built-in web server Operating System: Windows 6.1 build 7600 i586 PHP Version: 5.3.8 Block user comment: N Private report: N Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2011-09-09 07:06:27] chris dot wisefool at gmail dot com After slightly changing my code example to: <?php var_dump($_GET); if (!empty($_GET['search']['filter'])) echo 'SEARCH FILTER PARAM WAS NOT PROVIDED!'; $_GET = array('search'=>'1'); var_dump($_GET); if (!empty($_GET['search']['filter'])) echo 'SEARCH FILTER PARAM WAS NOT PROVIDED!'; The results do seem consistent with the behavior as explained in #27677 (I see that the behavior didn't occur when set manually because I was setting 'search' to 1 NOT '1' and the subscripting behavior only occurred with strings. So it seems the behavior is correct per PHP's documentation, just not my assumptions based on that documentation. It means to test for a subkey you have to use the longer !empty($_GET['search']) && array_key_exists('filter', $_GET['search']) && is_array($_GET['search']['filter']), but hey, that's life :) So I'm closing the bug. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2011-09-09 06:42:33] chris dot wisefool at gmail dot com Reworded bug summary to be more descriptive and succinct ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2011-09-09 06:39:54] chris dot wisefool at gmail dot com Either the form munged part of my data (unlikely) or I pasted it in wrong. The line after if (!empty($_GET['search']['filter'])) echo 'SEARCH FILTER PARAM WAS PROVIDED!'; should be $_GET = array('search'=>1); if (!empty($_GET['search']['filter'])) echo 'SEARCH FILTER PARAM WAS NOT PROVIDED!'; I'd edit it, but it seems you can't: you can only add comments... ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2011-09-09 06:29:54] chris dot wisefool at gmail dot com Description: ------------ Running on PHP Version 5.3.5, EasyPHP Server Apache. The test code on my system shows "SEARCH FILTER PARAM WAS PROVIDED" if ?search=1 is passed for the query string but curiously not if ?search[a]=1 is provided. Based on some other bug reports (#27677) I thought maybe the behavior was correct, but if so then it seems a bug that when _GET is manually set to the same value instead of set by PHP parsing the query string, that it gives different results. So it seems a bug either way. :) Test script: --------------- <?php # Assume http://somesite/?search=1 if (!empty($_GET['search']['filter'])) echo 'SEARCH FILTER PARAM WAS PROVIDED!'; # The REALLY odd thing is if I do this it does give the expected results: $_GET if (!empty($_GET['search']['filter'])) echo 'SEARCH FILTER PARAM WAS NOT PROVIDED!'; <?php # The following (which obviously should be run as a separate script) # demonstrates that the $_GET array seems the same in both cases # It seems like empty() is somehow seeing the _GET array as set by PHP # and the manually set _GET array as different when containing identical # contents! # It seems very odd to me! var_dump($_GET); if (!empty($_GET['search']['filter'])) echo 'SEARCH FILTER PARAM WAS NOT PROVIDED!'; $_GET = array('search'=>1); var_dump($_GET); if (!empty($_GET['search']['filter'])) echo 'SEARCH FILTER PARAM WAS NOT PROVIDED!'; Expected result: ---------------- SEARCH FILTER PARAM WAS PROVIDED if ?search[filter]=1 provided No "SEARCH FILTER PARAM WAS PROVIDED" if ?search=1 Actual result: -------------- SEARCH FILTER PARAM WAS PROVIDED if ?search=1 or ?search[filter]=1 provided ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=55650&edit=1