Req #75060 [NEW]: Allow traits to have constants to support emerging use cases

From: jocrutrisi at ibsats dot com Operating system: All PHP version: 7.2.0beta2 Package: Class/Object related Bug Type: Feature/Change Request Bug description:Allow traits to have constants to support emerging use cases Description: ------------ I want to preface this with a disclaimer that I'm aware that "traits" in other languages are even more conservative than PHP is - they don't allow properties, while PHP does. But what we have in PHP is still a useful variation of traits, called "mixins". A mixin is a slice of a class that has properties, methods, constants and so it can contain everything needed for implementing a standalone "slice" of functionality for reuse in classes. But while PHP allows properties, it doesn't allow constants in traits. The reasons for this decision are unclear. After traits were introduced in PHP 5.4, we've seen the roles, purpose and use scenarios for constants increasingly grow over time: 1. PHP 5.6 allowed for array constants, which made constants handy for constant look-up maps etc. 2. PHP 7.0 introduced opcache as a built-in feature, and it places constants in shared memory, which makes them especially performant for big look-up maps. 3. PHP 7.1 introduced private/protected constants, which means constants can now be used as an internal implementation detail, and not necessarily a public constant that can be specified in a separate class or interface. Unfortunately traits still don't allow constants... it's easy to see use cases for them, here's a very basic example: trait ColorTrait { protected $color; protected const COLORS = [ 'red' => true, 'green' => true, 'blue' => true ]; function setColor($color) { if (!isset(self::COLORS[$color])) { throw new Exception('Meh'); } $this->color = $color; } } Note, I'm aware of a duplicate of this bug: #70986, but since it's from 2 years ago I wanted to make a better case for the feature, in light of PHP 7.1's improvement on constants. The problem raised in the original bug report is: what happens if different constants of the same name are in different traits? I propose an easy to implement conservative solution: Fatal Error "Cannot use traits with the same constant names". We can always refine the solution now, and reduce the surface of rejected trait combinations later on, but to at least support the basic use cases, which now we're also denied. Test script: --------------- trait Foo { const BAR = 123; } Expected result: ---------------- No errors. Actual result: -------------- Fatal error: Traits cannot have constants -- Edit bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=75060&edit=1 -- Try a snapshot (PHP 5.4): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75060&r=trysnapshot54 Try a snapshot (PHP 5.5): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75060&r=trysnapshot55 Try a snapshot (trunk): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75060&r=trysnapshottrunk Fixed in SVN: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75060&r=fixed Fixed in release: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75060&r=alreadyfixed Need backtrace: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75060&r=needtrace Need Reproduce Script: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75060&r=needscript Try newer version: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75060&r=oldversion Not developer issue: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75060&r=support Expected behavior: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75060&r=notwrong Not enough info: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75060&r=notenoughinfo Submitted twice: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75060&r=submittedtwice register_globals: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75060&r=globals PHP 4 support discontinued: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75060&r=php4 Daylight Savings: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75060&r=dst IIS Stability: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75060&r=isapi Install GNU Sed: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75060&r=gnused Floating point limitations: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75060&r=float No Zend Extensions: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75060&r=nozend MySQL Configuration Error: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=75060&r=mysqlcfg