RE: [PHP] How to type arguments

I'm surprised nobody mentioned: http://php.net/assert in this thread yet. Perhaps I missed it? You should really consider doing this: 1) At the outer API layer, do a typecast (possibly with preg_match first) to convert the input data to acceptable form. 2) For inner API layer[s], sprinkle "assert" calls as needed to make sure during dev/testing that the outer layer is doing it right. In PROD, the assert can turn into a no-op, with no performance penalty, as I understand it. Disclosure: I've never worked on a project organized enough to actually do this properly. Sigh. :-)