#28151 [Bgs]: give notice when storing to an undefined array

ID: 28151 User updated by: aaron dot hawley at uvm dot edu Reported By: aaron dot hawley at uvm dot edu Status: Bogus Bug Type: Variables related Operating System: Debian GNU/Linux PHP Version: 4.3.4 New Comment: -Status: Open +Status: Bogus > Expected behaviour Funny, I actually expected this response to my bug. I think that's called recursion. [smiley-face] I entertained your request of me to double-check the documentation. I could only find the following mentions in the documentation: "If $arr doesn't exist yet, it will be created. So this is also an alternative way to specify an array." I couldn't find anything about "error reporting" for this situation (is this a [small] documentation bug?). I'm not requesting the automatic-array-creation behavior be changed, I'm requesting a "Notice"--not even a "Warning" (see below)--be generated when E_NOTICE is set. Continuing in the documentation, there were numerous examples and array-"Do's and Don't's" showing which array index expresions generate E_NOTICE errors. But nothing was mentioned of storing to indexes of previously undefined variables (I couldn't find documention on the "undefined variable" notice, either). For the above, I only bothered looking closely at the following section of the manual: http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.types.array.php I'm sure I would have had more success had I made a more general, thorough and thus convincing argument. But instead I'll just try to show the inconsistency of this "Expected behavior" with the following examples: Example 2-1: Undefined array gives warning <?php error_reporting(E_ALL); // This actually isn't needed. array_push($not_an_array_yet, 'b'); exit("done\n"); ?> The above will output: Warning: array_push(): First argument should be an array in example_2-1.php on line 3 done Example 2-2: PHP syntax of undefined array without warning <?php error_reporting(E_ALL); $not_an_array_yet[] = 'b'; exit("done\n"); ?> The above will output: done Shouldn't it have been more "expected" for these to have behaved the same? They did not. And I'm actually just arguing for a "Notice" message and not the "Warning" which array_push() gives. Because, as you may know, array_push doesn't create an array while the PHP syntax does. So I submit these should have more comparable semantic definitions and thus both give warnings regardless if the PHP programmer chooses to use the more succinct PHP array syntax over using a function call. If there is some larger semantic difference between these two, I'm not aware of it. Interestingly, the documentation suggests<http://www.php.net/array_push> using the empty-bracket notation. Perhaps I should have categorized this as a "feature request"? Because it is useful for PHP to make sure your array was previously defined and not simply a mistyped variable. Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2004-04-26 19:30:00] iliaa@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 Expected behaviour ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2004-04-26 04:56:11] aaron dot hawley at uvm dot edu don't let the concatenated endline character confuse you. sorry about that. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2004-04-26 04:54:51] aaron dot hawley at uvm dot edu Description: ------------ When the left-hand-side of an assignment expression is an array location using square-brackets, PHP should check that the array variable was previously defined, and give a notice if E_NOTICE is flagged in error_reporting. This would find mistyped variables, and help with those attempting to write more stable and secure PHP code with E_ALL. Reproduce code: --------------- <?php error_reporting(E_ALL); $not_an_array_yet[1] = 'a' . "\n"; exit("done\n"); ?> Expected result: ---------------- Notice: Undefined variable: not_an_array_yet in my_file.php on line 3 done Actual result: -------------- done ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at http://bugs.php.net/?id=28151&edit=1