Bug #81443 [Com]: Inconsistent casting to bool of SimpleXML objects

Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=81443&edit=1 ID: 81443 Comment by: a at b dot c dot de Reported by: rk at srsbiz dot pl Summary: Inconsistent casting to bool of SimpleXML objects Status: Not a bug Type: Bug Package: SimpleXML related Operating System: * PHP Version: Irrelevant Assigned To: cmb Block user comment: N Private report: N New Comment: It's an infelicity of the SimpleXML interface that "->child" means almost, but not quite, the same thing as "->child[0]"; the results will behave the same in almost all cases, but - as shown - one is falsy and the other isn't. $branch = simplexml_load_string('<root><branch/></root>')->branch; $branch0 = simplexml_load_string('<root><branch/></root>')->branch[0]; echo $branch->getName(), "\n"; echo $branch->asXML(), "\n"; echo count($branch->attributes()), "\n"; echo (int)(bool)$branch, "\n"; echo $branch0->getName(), "\n"; echo $branch0->asXML(), "\n"; echo count($branch0->attributes()), "\n"; echo (int)(bool)$branch0, "\n"; echo (int)($branch[0] == $branch0); Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2021-09-15 22:52:07] cmb@php.net > Not sure if this is SimpleXML or documentation problem Neither. The three cases yielding true are not about attributeless empty elements, since empty element implies that there are no children, but <root> has child elements. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2021-09-15 21:42:46] rk at srsbiz dot pl Description: ------------ As documentation says https://www.php.net/manual/en/language.types.boolean.php#language.types.boolean.casting > SimpleXML objects created from attributeless empty elements are considered false, but in some cases such nodes are evaluated as true https://3v4l.org/qIH4a Not sure if this is SimpleXML or documentation problem Test script: --------------- <?php var_dump( (bool)simplexml_load_string('<root />'), (bool)simplexml_load_string('<root><branch /></root>')->branch, (bool)simplexml_load_string('<root><branch></branch></root>')->branch, (bool)simplexml_load_string('<root><otherbranch /><branch /></root>')->branch, (bool)simplexml_load_string('<root><branch /><branch /></root>')->branch[0], (bool)simplexml_load_string('<root><branch /><branch></branch></root>')->branch[1], ); Expected result: ---------------- bool(false) bool(false) bool(false) bool(false) bool(false) bool(false) Actual result: -------------- bool(false) bool(true) bool(true) bool(true) bool(false) bool(false) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=81443&edit=1