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

Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=71658&edit=1 ID: 71658 Updated by: cmb@php.net Reported by: wadev at mailbox dot hu Summary: Change array_merge() to merge valid parameters if any is invalid Status: Open Type: Feature/Change Request Package: Arrays related Operating System: Any PHP Version: 7.0.3 -Assigned To: +Assigned To: cmb Block user comment: N Private report: N New Comment: I don't see why array_merge() should behave differently than array_intersect(), array_diff() etc. (and I wouldn't change them all), but if you consider that an improvement, feel free to start the RFC process (see <https://wiki.php.net/rfc/howto>). Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2016-02-24 11:24:42] wadev at mailbox dot hu 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 this bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=71658&edit=1