Req #64923 [Opn->Sus]: DateTime::CreateFromFormat return false

Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=64923&edit=1 ID: 64923 Updated by: cmb@php.net Reported by: ostico at gmail dot com Summary: DateTime::CreateFromFormat return false -Status: Open +Status: Suspended Type: Feature/Change Request Package: Class/Object related Operating System: Linux PHP Version: Irrelevant Block user comment: N Private report: N New Comment: Well, returning an "empty" DateTime object on failure seems like a very bad idea to me. Throwing an exception might make sense, but that would certainly constitute BC break, and as such needs to be discussed on the internals mailing list[1]. If you're still interested in this feature, please forward your request to this list. For the time being, I'm suspending this ticket. [1] <https://www.php.net/mailing-lists.php#internals> Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2013-05-25 23:31:32] ostico at gmail dot com Description: ------------ --- From manual page: http://www.php.net/datetime.createfromformat#refsect1- datetime.createfromformat-returnvalues --- I think that returning false is a bad behaviour that lead to surely unwanted fatal exception when passing to it not well formatted dates. This static method seems to be thought to get a datetime object on which method format can be called inline: DateTime::CreateFromFormat()->format() But on not well formatted date strings the 'format' method raise an exception E_ERROR because it is called on a boolean. In my opinion CreateFromFormat should raise a throwable exception ( Best Solution ) or return an empty DateTime Object ( Unix Time 1970-01-01 ) and raise a warning, NOT a boolean value. Test script: --------------- php > var_dump( DateTime::CreateFromFormat('Y-m-d', '2013-05-') ); php > try { DateTime::CreateFromFormat('Y-m-d', '2013-05-'); } catch ( Exception $e ) { var_dump( 'ok' ); } php > try { var_dump( DateTime::CreateFromFormat('Y-m-d', '2013-05-')->format('dmY') ); } catch ( Exception $e ) { echo 'ok'; } Expected result: ---------------- PHP Warning: Uncaught exception 'Exception' in php shell code:1 string(2) "ok" string(2) "ok" //--------------- //alternatively the example should return an empty Datetime Object and raise a warning PHP Warning: Malformed Date String in php shell code on line 1 object(DateTime)#10 (3) { ["date"]=> string(19) "1970-01-01 00:00:00" ["timezone_type"]=> int(3) ["timezone"]=> string(13) "Europe/Berlin" } PHP Warning: Malformed Date String in php shell code on line 1 PHP Warning: Malformed Date String in php shell code on line 1 string(8) "01011970" Actual result: -------------- bool(false) PHP Fatal error: Call to a member function format() on a non-object in php shell code on line 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=64923&edit=1