Bug #73919 [Ver->Nab]: Short ternary operator and reference

Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=73919&edit=1 ID: 73919 Updated by: nikic@php.net Reported by: p17 at ivaldi dot xyz Summary: Short ternary operator and reference -Status: Verified +Status: Not a bug Type: Bug Package: Scripting Engine problem Operating System: Linux 4.8.0-2-amd64 PHP Version: 7.1.0 Block user comment: N Private report: N New Comment: Your code is equivalent to ($val =& $foo) ?: 'default' and behaves accordingly. The RHS of a by-reference assignment must be variable-like, so this is the only valid way of parsing the code. We could relax the RHS to be an expression and impose the variable-like constraint subsequently. However, this would be a backwards-incompatible change. The current parsing is consistent with our treatment of variables in other circumstances, e.g. !$x instanceof y parses as !($x instanceof y) rather than (!$x) instanceof y, because the LHS of instanceof must be variable-like. Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2017-01-12 13:13:01] cmb@php.net Confirmed: <https://3v4l.org/IU2Cq#v560>. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2017-01-12 12:54:29] p17 at ivaldi dot xyz Description: ------------ Using the short tertiary operator ?: with a pointer as first condition results in a non expected result. Test script: --------------- #!/usr/bin/php <?php error_reporting(E_ALL | E_STRICT); $val = &$foo ?: 'default'; var_dump($val); Expected result: ---------------- string(7) "default" Actual result: -------------- NULL ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=73919&edit=1