Req #71658 [NEW]: Change array_merge() to merge valid parameters if any is invalid

From: wadev at mailbox dot hu Operating system: Any PHP version: 7.0.3 Package: Arrays related Bug Type: Feature/Change Request Bug description:Change array_merge() to merge valid parameters if any is invalid Description: ------------ array_merge() function returns NULL if any of the arguments are not arrays. This makes for a lot of boilerplate code / guard clauses, such that I, more often than not, rather end up using foreach for merging instead. I don't know if I am the only one who expects it to either: - return a merged array containing all of the valid arrays' keys/values, or - return a merged array containing all of the valid arrays' keys/values before the first "invalid" argument. This latter might (or might not) be preferrable on performance considerations. Please propose a change and/or vote on proposal if this is even possible. If so, I may make a patch if needed. EDIT: as this seems similar to #64909, another proposal would be the ability to change the emitted E_WARNING into a catchable fatal error. This is quite strange that in such case we could catch a java.lang.NullPointerException in Java, but nothing in PHP; quite counter-productive. Test script: --------------- <?php var_dump(array_merge(['what', 'ever'], false)); Expected result: ---------------- array(2) { [0]=> string(4) "what" [1]=> string(4) "ever" } Actual result: -------------- <br /> <b>Warning</b>: array_merge(): Argument #2 is not an array in <b>[...][...]</b> on line <b>2</b><br /> NULL -- Edit bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=71658&edit=1 -- Try a snapshot (PHP 5.4): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71658&r=trysnapshot54 Try a snapshot (PHP 5.5): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71658&r=trysnapshot55 Try a snapshot (trunk): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71658&r=trysnapshottrunk Fixed in SVN: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71658&r=fixed Fixed in release: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71658&r=alreadyfixed Need backtrace: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71658&r=needtrace Need Reproduce Script: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71658&r=needscript Try newer version: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71658&r=oldversion Not developer issue: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71658&r=support Expected behavior: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71658&r=notwrong Not enough info: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71658&r=notenoughinfo Submitted twice: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71658&r=submittedtwice register_globals: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71658&r=globals PHP 4 support discontinued: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71658&r=php4 Daylight Savings: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71658&r=dst IIS Stability: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71658&r=isapi Install GNU Sed: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71658&r=gnused Floating point limitations: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71658&r=float No Zend Extensions: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71658&r=nozend MySQL Configuration Error: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=71658&r=mysqlcfg