Re: [RFC] Add is_list(mixed $value): bool to check for list-like arrays

Hi Ben, > I don’t think changing the name changes my concern, but as Tyson > pointed out: > > > These idiosyncrasies of php and unintuitive behaviors existed prior > > to this RFC. > > I’m generally +1 on this RFC, but as I think about it, maybe there is a > problem with the name. If we choose to introduce a pure list construct > at some point, then is_list() may cause confusion (or maybe it > won’t, > if it can be made to return true for a zero-indexed, standard > PHP > array *and* a list, whatever that might look like in the > language). For the possibility of list being added to the language: The syntax conflict with list($a) = ... may cause issues with supporting it in the parser, and confuse people learning the language, but I can still see it as possible since the parser conflict also means that it wouldn't conflict with existing names (if that were fixed). The fact that my RFC is also using "list" to refer to sequential arrays starting with 0 may encourage that name over vec in the future, in combination with SplDoublyLinkedList already existing. - I guess list[$a, $b] may be usable as shorthand for list creation but that's out of the scope of this rfc So the naming's definitely a potential concern. My earlier idea of is_array_list() or is_array_a_list() may help avoid that ambiguity if that's a concern. I'd still prefer short terms for common language concepts - zero_indexed isn't a commonly used phrase Cheers, Tyson