Bug #54155 [Com]: Insufficient+Inconsistent error reporting
Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=54155&edit=1
ID: 54155
Comment by: chris dot baker dot gr at gmail dot com
Reported by: a1283465 at jnxjn dot com
Summary: Insufficient+Inconsistent error reporting
Status: Open
Type: Bug
Package: Variables related
Operating System: Linux
PHP Version: 5.3.5
Block user comment: N
Private report: N
New Comment:
I think the bug is the lack of consistent error reporting.
Part of this is related to silent type juggling. As you can see in this example, NULL and FALSE will
silently become arrays and PHP will not complain about non-existent keys. Undefined variables,
interestingly, do not behave the same as explicit NULL.
https://eval.in/69415
If the script becomes unavailable, it is the following code attempted on various types of variables.
Integer shown here, the example tries a string and a numeric key for boolean, null, integer, float,
string, and object.
$arr = 1;
echo $arr['index']; // null
var_dump($arr); // int(1)
$arr['index'] = 'index "index" value'; // Warning: Cannot use a scalar
value as an array
echo $arr["index"]; // null
var_dump($arr); // int(1)
Previous Comments:
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[2012-05-11 07:09:40] a1283465 at jnxjn dot com
"I'd argue that one should check that a variable is of an expected type"
I totally agree with that. But isn't error reporting (especially NOTICE etc) exactly for
finding such bad code pieces?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2012-02-24 20:09:23] robertbasic dot com at gmail dot com
I'd argue that one should check that a variable is of an expected type, or maybe cast the type
to the expected one, before using it.
I vote for "Not a bug".
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2011-03-03 23:23:32] a1283465 at jnxjn dot com
Description:
------------
If you try to access an undefined index on an array, you will get an error. But if you try the same
on bool(false) PHP will silently accept it and ignores the error.
Please note that this is especially dangerous on database results, where you get false instead of an
array when there is no result.
If you try the same on a valid array with an invalid index you will get a E_NOTICE.
So trying to use the array operator on a non-array should at least raise an E_STRICT error,
indicating that there is a problem, instead of silently continuing to use the wrong result for
further calculations.
Test script:
---------------
$array1 = false;
$array2 = array('a'=>3);
echo 5+3*$array1['a']; // output: 5
var_dump($array1['b']); // output: NULL
var_dump($array2['b']); // output: <b>Notice</b>: Undefined index: b
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Edit this bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=54155&edit=1
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