Doc #52605 [Com]: get_class(NULL) returns class name when called insid member function of a class

Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=52605&edit=1 ID: 52605 Comment by: tgabi333 at gmail dot com Reported by: rahul dot pache at gmail dot com Summary: get_class(NULL) returns class name when called insid member function of a class Status: Closed Type: Documentation Problem Package: Documentation problem Operating System: windows 7 PHP Version: 5.3.3 Assigned To: degeberg Block user comment: N Private report: N New Comment: Agree with Gordon, +1 for a bug Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2012-08-28 12:03:07] gordon dot mcvey at ntlworld dot com It may be behaving as described in the documentation, but it's seriously a big misfeature! I was trying to figure out why get_class was returning the name of the class it was being called in and not the class of the object I was passing into it for the best part of a morning before I realised that the variable I was passing in had failed to instantiate and therefore had a NULL value. This function has inconsistent behaviour, and it should be updated to make the argument mandatory, and not assume that a NULL value means the name of the containing class. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2010-08-15 11:09:51] degeberg@php.net There is no issue except in the documentation. Re 1: Because that is only allowed inside a class. Re 2: Because that is what it defaults to. Re 3: Undefined variables default to NULL. You're also getting an E_NOTICE telling you that this might be a problem. Not a bug in PHP. I actually thought the documentation already addressed point 1 and 2, but looking at it again it appears it doesn't. I've committed one more fix. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2010-08-15 11:09:44] degeberg@php.net Automatic comment from SVN on behalf of degeberg Revision: http://svn.php.net/viewvc/?view=revision&amp;revision=302261 Log: Clarified default behavior when omitting param. See PHP bug #52605. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2010-08-15 10:48:02] rahul dot pache at gmail dot com <?php get_class(NULL); ?> Output: Warning: get_class() called without object from outside a class in D:\EasyPHP\www\index.php on line 2 Comment: 1. Then why is get_class(NULL) when called from outside the class returning a warning message. 2. I don't understand why is it returning class name "foo" when null is passed to it inside member function of a class. 3. I made a function to check if the argument passed is object of same class or not. <?php class foo { public static check($obj) { if(get_class($obj) == __CLASS__) { echo "YES"; } else { echo "NO"; } } } $var = new foo(); foo::check($var); // This will print YES foo::check($uninitialized_variable) /* This will also print YES because NULL is passed to get_class() in the function foo::check(). And when NULL is passed to a get_class inside a member function of the class it returns class name. */ ?> I think this is not a documentation problem, there is some serious bug. :( ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2010-08-15 09:17:37] degeberg@php.net This bug has been fixed in the documentation's XML sources. Since the online and downloadable versions of the documentation need some time to get updated, we would like to ask you to be a bit patient. Thank you for the report, and for helping us make our documentation better. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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 https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=52605 -- Edit this bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=52605&edit=1