Req #72047 [NEW]: Support a "conditional assignment" operator like ruby's `||=`

From: oded at geek dot co dot il Operating system: Linux PHP version: 7.0.5 Package: Variables related Bug Type: Feature/Change Request Bug description:Support a "conditional assignment" operator like ruby's ||= Description: ------------ --- From manual page: http://www.php.net/language.operators.assignment --- I often find myself setting default values to variables using syntax of the form: $a = $a ?? "default"; The same code in Ruby would be written as a ||= "default" Which is more concise and reduces boilerplate. It would be great if PHP could support such shorthand syntax. For example, how about a "null coalescing" assignment operator: $a ??= 'default' -- Edit bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=72047&edit=1 -- Try a snapshot (PHP 5.4): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=72047&r=trysnapshot54 Try a snapshot (PHP 5.5): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=72047&r=trysnapshot55 Try a snapshot (trunk): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=72047&r=trysnapshottrunk Fixed in SVN: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=72047&r=fixed Fixed in release: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=72047&r=alreadyfixed Need backtrace: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=72047&r=needtrace Need Reproduce Script: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=72047&r=needscript Try newer version: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=72047&r=oldversion Not developer issue: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=72047&r=support Expected behavior: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=72047&r=notwrong Not enough info: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=72047&r=notenoughinfo Submitted twice: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=72047&r=submittedtwice register_globals: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=72047&r=globals PHP 4 support discontinued: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=72047&r=php4 Daylight Savings: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=72047&r=dst IIS Stability: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=72047&r=isapi Install GNU Sed: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=72047&r=gnused Floating point limitations: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=72047&r=float No Zend Extensions: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=72047&r=nozend MySQL Configuration Error: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=72047&r=mysqlcfg