Doc #55164 [Opn->Ana]: Unclear/incorrect description of "casting to null"

Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=55164&edit=1 ID: 55164 Updated by: philip@php.net Reported by: deceze at gmail dot com Summary: Unclear/incorrect description of "casting to null" -Status: Open +Status: Analyzed Type: Documentation Problem Package: Documentation problem PHP Version: Irrelevant Block user comment: N Private report: N New Comment: I agree there is a bug here, but you can cast something to null using (unset) so: $a = "foo"; $b = "bar"; $b = (unset) $a; var_dump($b); NULL Slightly odd that it's (unset) and not (null) but it is what it is. That section should refer to the (unset) documentation within the type juggling documentation. Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2011-07-08 21:18:01] deceze at gmail dot com Description: ------------ The documentation at http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.types.null.php states: "Casting a variable to null will remove the variable and unset its value." This seems incorrect and/or misleading. "Casting" to null is not possible as such through the cast syntax (null). Setting the type of a variable using settype($foo, 'null') or assigning null to any variable will not "remove" the variable. The variable continues to exist with the value null. Test script: --------------- // the documentation suggests something like this: $foo = 'bar'; settype($foo, 'null'); echo $foo; // PHP Notice: Undefined variable: foo // actual behavior: $foo = 'bar'; settype($foo, 'null'); echo $foo; // empty output, no warning ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=55164&edit=1