Re: Error instead of returning false

> Le 7 mai 2019 à 16:22, Gert <gertp93@gmail.com> a écrit : > > Hello internals, > > I wanted to propose an RFC, but i'd like to check first if this idea > has been considered before already. > > My idea, extremely summarized, would be to take the functions that > return false/null when they 'error', and instead make them actually > throw an error. > > Currently, functions like getcwd or json_decode will return false/null > when an error occurs, and they populate a global error state, which > can be retrieved by error_get_last, or similar functions. json_decode > already got the JSON_THROW_ON_ERROR option in PHP 7.3, and this RFC > would basically make that behaviour default. This RFC would target PHP > 8.0, but i'd like to hear some opinions on this. > > Greetings, > Gert de Pagter (BackEndTea) > > -- > PHP Internals - PHP Runtime Development Mailing List > To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php > The big issue, with your proposal, is, of course, migration of legacy code: <?php $f = @fopen($whatever); if ($f === false) { // handle the error. } ?> If you do think that ideally an exception should be thrown here, it is better to devise a new function—and, while you’re at it, a function that returns an object of some definite class instead of a resource. Another issue is that a “failure” is not necessarily an “error”. For example, when I use strpos(), I expect that it returns sometimes false; and either using a try/catch construct, or using a separate check beforehand would be cumbersome. —Claude