Bug #77853 [NEW]: Inconsistent substr_compare behaviour with empty haystack

From: riikka dot kalliomaki at gmail dot com Operating system: PHP version: 7.3.4 Package: Strings related Bug Type: Bug Bug description:Inconsistent substr_compare behaviour with empty haystack Description: ------------ The behavior of substr_compare is a bit odd and somewhat inconsistent, especially when compared to other php functions. substr_compare provides an error if the offset is *equal* or greater than the length of the first paremeter, i.e. the haystack. Other functions like substr() and substr_count() have no problems with offset that are *equal* to the haystack, e.g. substr('foo', 3) === ''; substr('foo', 4) === false; substr_count('foo', 'o', 3) === 0; substr_count('foo', 'o', 4) === false; // Produces PHP Warning: substr_count(): Offset not contained in string This creates a somewhat strange problem, that you cannot compare an empty string with anything, e.g. substr_compare('a', 'a', 0) === 0; substr_compare('', '', 0) === false; // Produces PHP Warning: substr_compare(): The start position cannot exceed initial string length That is, unless you set the length to 0 as well (because the internal function short circuits 0 length comparison): substr_compare('', '', 0, 0) === 0; To be slightly pedantic, the manual also states the following about the length parameter: > The length of the comparison. The default value is the largest of the length of the str compared to the length of main_str less the offset. Thus, substr_compare('', '', 0, 0) should be same as substr_compare('', '', 0), but the short circuiting doesn't happen due to usage of default parameter, so it causes an error. In my opinion, this should be fixed in one of the following ways to make a function more usable: 1. Make sure that substr_compare('', '', 0) === substr_compare('', '', 0, 0) 2. Allow special case of offset 0, if the haystack is empty 3. Allow offset that is *equal* to the length of the haystack The case 1 is a minimal fix to address what I consider the main "bug" or inconsistency. The case 2 would allow some leeway that is probably a very minimal BC break. The case 3 would make most of sense in PHP, but is a somewhat of a BC break. As it stands right now, general use of substr_compare is a bit unwieldy, as you have to add additional guard clauses to check if the haystack is empty to use the function in general case. For example, the following function will fail with empty haystack and nonempty needle: function ends_with($haystack, $needle): bool { $length = strlen($needle); return substr_compare($haystack, $needle, -$length, $length) === 0; } Test script: --------------- <?php var_dump(substr_compare('', '', 0, 0)); var_dump(substr_compare('', '', 0)); Expected result: ---------------- int(0) int(0) Actual result: -------------- int(0) Warning: substr_compare(): The start position cannot exceed initial string length in /Users/riikka/Source/opcodes2.php on line 4 bool(false) -- Edit bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=77853&edit=1 -- Try a snapshot (PHP 5.4): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=77853&r=trysnapshot54 Try a snapshot (PHP 5.5): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=77853&r=trysnapshot55 Try a snapshot (trunk): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=77853&r=trysnapshottrunk Fixed in SVN: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=77853&r=fixed Fixed in release: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=77853&r=alreadyfixed Need backtrace: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=77853&r=needtrace Need Reproduce Script: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=77853&r=needscript Try newer version: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=77853&r=oldversion Not developer issue: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=77853&r=support Expected behavior: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=77853&r=notwrong Not enough info: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=77853&r=notenoughinfo Submitted twice: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=77853&r=submittedtwice register_globals: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=77853&r=globals PHP 4 support discontinued: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=77853&r=php4 Daylight Savings: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=77853&r=dst IIS Stability: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=77853&r=isapi Install GNU Sed: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=77853&r=gnused Floating point limitations: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=77853&r=float No Zend Extensions: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=77853&r=nozend MySQL Configuration Error: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=77853&r=mysqlcfg