Bug #79525 [Com]: Foreach converting/casting array keys to int

Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=79525&edit=1 ID: 79525 Comment by: bugreports at gmail dot com Reported by: data dot protection dot gdpr at gmail dot com Summary: Foreach converting/casting array keys to int Status: Open Type: Bug Package: Arrays related Operating System: CentOS 6 PHP Version: 7.3.17 Block user comment: N Private report: N New Comment: > I have an array with "numeric" key as string (e.g. '1') you don't, you just think you do php > var_dump([1=>'a', 2=>'b']); array(2) { [1]=> string(1) "a" [2]=> string(1) "b" } php > var_dump(['1'=>'a', '2'=>'b']); array(2) { [1]=> string(1) "a" [2]=> string(1) "b" } Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2020-04-26 21:31:59] data dot protection dot gdpr at gmail dot com Description: ------------ I have an array with "numeric" key as string (e.g. '1'), intentionally, as semantically it makes sense for the context. However, I noticed that using a foreach will convert the numeric string keys to "int", which then causes problems with strict comparisons, for example. This does not seem like a good behavior, and I wonder if this should change. Test script: --------------- <?php $array = array( '' => 'test', '1' => 'test1', '5' => 'test5', '2' => 'test2', '10' => 'test10' ); foreach ($array as $key => $val) { var_dump($key); } Expected result: ---------------- string(0) "" string(1) "1" string(1) "5" string(1) "2" string(2) "10" Actual result: -------------- string(0) "" int(1) int(5) int(2) int(10) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=79525&edit=1