Bug #81344 [Opn->Nab]: JSON_NUMERIC_CHECK Behaviour

Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=81344&edit=1 ID: 81344 Updated by: nikic@php.net Reported by: tobiasoitzinger at gmail dot com Summary: JSON_NUMERIC_CHECK Behaviour -Status: Open +Status: Not a bug Type: Bug Package: JSON related Operating System: Ubuntu 20.04 PHP Version: 8.0.9 Block user comment: N Private report: N New Comment: Closing this per above comments. I think we're better of sticking with the "standard" behavior here, even if it's not always the desired one. Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2021-08-10 12:55:22] tobiasoitzinger at gmail dot com Probably this is not a bug. As you stated it was more of a mistake on our side using the "magic", and it seems to be correct the way it behaves since php8+. As said just wasn't sure because i couldn't find why it beahves like that. Thanks for clearing things up. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2021-08-10 12:43:24] nikic@php.net This is due to https://wiki.php.net/rfc/saner-numeric-strings, which allowed trailing whitespace in numeric strings (leading whitespace was allowed previously). I'm inclined to close this as "Not a Bug" on the premise that you explicitly opted into using magic, so magic is what you got. The correct usage is to not enable JSON_NUMERIC_CHECK and instead provide json_encode() with correct types in the first place, which allows you to precisely control where you want to use numbers and where you want to use strings. JSON_NUMERIC_CHECK perform a heuristic conversion, and the heuristic makes a choice that is undesirable for your use case. The alternative here would be to use a stricter check for JSON_NUMERIC_CHECK than PHP's general notion of what a "numeric string" is. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2021-08-10 12:32:03] tobiasoitzinger at gmail dot com Description: ------------ When using JSON_NUMERIC_CHECK with json_encode, the behaviour differs starting from php8. I couldn't find if this is documented somewhere, i am also not sure if this is a bug. json_encode currently has no option to specify if leading zeros schould be kept. See: https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=79189 This might be correct, since according to the JSON specification, a number cannot start with 0, there is also a bug for this: https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=70680 If some wanted to keep the leading zero, a workaround could be used to add a space character after the number that should keep it's leading zeros. In php < 8 using JSON_NUMERIC_CHECK: 1. with a whitespace after the number e.g "01234 " it would convert to (string)01234 2. without a whitespace after the number e.g "01234" it would convert to (int)1234 In php >= 8 using JSON_NUMERIC_CHECK: Whitespaces do not matter, it always converts it to (int)1234. The behaviour changed, which might be correct. However as stated above i couldn't find this in the changelog or somewhere else documented, maybe it is a bug / unexpected behaviour? Test script: --------------- print_r(json_encode('01234 ', JSON_NUMERIC_CHECK)); Expected result: ---------------- "01234 " Actual result: -------------- 1234 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=81344&edit=1