#26396 [Com]: foreach scope modality

ID: 26396 Comment by: jpatrin at pnicorp dot com Reported By: php dot net dot 1 at odi dot ch Status: Wont fix Bug Type: Arrays related Operating System: * PHP Version: 4.3.3 New Comment: Ok, I'll accept that response, but why does foreach not make a copy of the referenced array? I see no place in the foreach docs that say that it doesn't make a copy when the variable is a reference. Sidenote: I thought that all PHP vars were refernces and that usinf =& made it a refernce to the same object instead of a refernce to a copy of the object. If this is true, the copy should still be made just fine. foreach is ALWAYS supposed to make a copy of the array and foreach over that. Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2003-11-25 17:21:46] helly@php.net Thank you for taking the time to write to us, but this is not a bug. Please double-check the documentation available at http://www.php.net/manual/ and the instructions on how to report a bug at http://bugs.php.net/how-to-report.php I was right then. Global creates a reference and referenced arrays cannot be nested. When an array is passed to foreach and it is not a reference then a copy of the array is created. That's where the difference comes from. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2003-11-25 16:27:47] jpatrin at pnicorp dot com Here's a bit more. If you use $usr_langs =& $GLOBALS['usr_langs']; instead of global $usr_langs; the same bug presents it self. Also, if you put global $usr_langs; above the echo "Test2..." You get only "de" in the output. It seems like global is munging the scope of foreach copies. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2003-11-25 16:08:19] helly@php.net Interesting, anybody? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2003-11-25 13:22:18] jpatrin at pnicorp dot com Here's the proof that the global keyword is broken. If you change the code to use $GLOBALS as such: <?php function f() { foreach($GLOBALS['usr_langs'] as $lang) { } } function g() { foreach($GLOBALS['usr_langs'] as $lang) { f(); echo $lang.' '; } } echo 'Test1:<br>'; g(); echo '<br>----------<br>'; echo 'Test2:<br>'; foreach($usr_langs as $lang) { f(); echo $lang.' '; } ?> The output is: Test1: de fr it ---------- Test2: de fr it As was originally expected. Please either open this bug again or explain why global is treated differently than $GLOBALS. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2003-11-25 13:12:37] jpatrin at pnicorp dot com You *CAN* nest foreach loops, as I have been doing it for a LONG time. You can even nest foreach loops with the same array and the output will be as expected (see code at bottom). Because foreach works on a copy of the array, it does not change the internal pointer and therefore there are two bugs here. The first being that the outputs aren't the same and second being that all values int he array are not output by g(). What seems to be happening if that f() is somehow altering the internal pointer of the *copy* that g() is operating on. Is it almost certain that this is a problem with how global is implemented. This code: <?php foreach($usr_langs as $lang) { echo "1 $lang<br/>"; foreach($usr_langs as $lang2) { echo "2 $lang2<br/>"; } } ?> Produces this output: 1 de 2 de 2 fr 2 it 1 fr 2 de 2 fr 2 it 1 it 2 de 2 fr 2 it ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The remainder of the comments for this report are too long. To view the rest of the comments, please view the bug report online at http://bugs.php.net/26396 -- Edit this bug report at http://bugs.php.net/?id=26396&edit=1