Bug #71529 [NEW]: Variable references on array elements don't work when using count

From: David dot Gausmann at measX dot com Operating system: irrelevant PHP version: 7.0.3 Package: Scripting Engine problem Bug Type: Bug Bug description:Variable references on array elements don't work when using count Description: ------------ In a websites code we have got nested arrays for a tree structure. In PHP 5.5 that code worked fine, but since PHP 7 it doesn't work anymore. I've read the "backward incompatibility changes", but this point seems not to be listed there (and in my opinion it is a bug). In my code I am pushing variables by-reference into an stack array. The references are referencing to the last element of another entry of the stack array. The bug seems to depend on the usage of count(). If I use fixed indices for testing purposes, then the code works fine. Test script: --------------- <?php $avOutput = array('test' => array()); $avStack = array(&$avOutput['test']); $avTemp = array('data' => 1, 'test' => array()); $avStack[count($avStack) - 1][] = $avTemp; $avStack[] = &$avStack[count($avStack) - 1][count($avStack[count($avStack) - 1]) - 1]['test']; // WORKS NOT in PHP7 (but worked in PHP 5.5) //$avStack[] = &$avStack[0][0]['test']; // WORKS $avTemp = array('data' => 2, 'test' => array()); $avStack[count($avStack) - 1][] = $avTemp; echo "<xmp>"; print_r($avOutput); echo "</xmp>"; ?> Expected result: ---------------- Array ( [test] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [data] => 1 [test] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [data] => 2 [test] => Array ( ) ) ) ) ) ) (You can see that [data] => 1 and [data] => 2 are both listed. This was the result in PHP 5.5) Actual result: -------------- Array ( [test] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [data] => 1 [test] => Array ( ) ) ) ) (You can see that [data] => 1 is there, but [data] => 2 is missing. If you uncomment the line with fixed indices, you become the correct result. If you output the result of the both count(), you will get 0 for each, so both lines should be equal.) -- Edit bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=71529&edit=1 -- Try a snapshot (PHP 5.4): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71529&r=trysnapshot54 Try a snapshot (PHP 5.5): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71529&r=trysnapshot55 Try a snapshot (trunk): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71529&r=trysnapshottrunk Fixed in SVN: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71529&r=fixed Fixed in release: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71529&r=alreadyfixed Need backtrace: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71529&r=needtrace Need Reproduce Script: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71529&r=needscript Try newer version: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71529&r=oldversion Not developer issue: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71529&r=support Expected behavior: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71529&r=notwrong Not enough info: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71529&r=notenoughinfo Submitted twice: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71529&r=submittedtwice register_globals: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71529&r=globals PHP 4 support discontinued: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71529&r=php4 Daylight Savings: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71529&r=dst IIS Stability: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71529&r=isapi Install GNU Sed: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71529&r=gnused Floating point limitations: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71529&r=float No Zend Extensions: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71529&r=nozend MySQL Configuration Error: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71529&r=mysqlcfg