Re: [RFC] Deprecate the extract function in PHP 7.3

Hi Ryan I can see your argument. The reasoning behind it is that a function in the standard library should not encourage unsafe code. Admittedly, since this function is rarely used except for templating systems one could call this a non-issue. I just wanted to bring it up. Regards On 15 Sep 2017, 19:30 +0200, Ryan Pallas <derokorian@gmail.com>, wrote: > > > > On Sep 15, 2017 11:22 AM, <ilija.tovilo@me.com> wrote: > > > Hi! > > > > > > The extract function takes an associative array and > > > puts it into the local symbol table. > > > http://php.net/manual/en/function.extract.php > > > > > > ``` > > > $array = [ > > >     ‘foo’ => ‘foo’, > > >     ‘bar’ => ‘bar’, > > > ]; > > > > > > extract($array); > > > > > > print $foo; // "foo" > > > ``` > > > > > > As a second parameter the extract function takes some > > > options to make this function less dangerous, like EXTR_SKIP that > > > prevents an existing local variable of being overwritten. There’s a few more options, go ahead and > > > take a look at the documentation. EXTR_OVERWRITE is the default one > > > though. You can also pass a prefix for the variable names as a third argument. > > > > > > I seriously doubt the usefulness of this function, especially looking at the > > > potential risks. The fact that overwriting the local variables is the default behaviour doesn’t > > > make it any better. I suggest deprecating it in PHP 7.3 and removing it in 8. > > > > > > In a whole Symfony-Stack (3.4) with all of it’s dependencies I could only find two > > > usages of this function, both of which could be easily rewritten in vanilla PHP: > > > > > > https://github.com/symfony/symfony/blob/master/src/Symfony/Component/Templating/PhpEngine.php#L148 > > > > > > https://github.com/symfony/symfony/blob/master/src/Symfony/Component/Templating/PhpEngine.php#L158 > > > > > > Only downside: A polyfill is probably impossible since you cannot mutate the local > > > symbol table of the callee (as far as I’m aware). > > > > > > Any thoughts? > > I see no gain by removing this function. I've also seen it used for templating quite > often. Yes the functionality could be changed not to use extract and end up working the same to the > consumer but why make people rewrite these things for no apparent gain (and likely a small > performance hit)? > > > > > > > Regards > > > > > > >