Re: Proposal: native decimal scalar type support
| From: | Rowan Tommins | Date: | Thu, 27 Apr 2023 12:08:35 +0000 |
| Subject: | Re: Proposal: native decimal scalar type support | ||
| References: | 1 2 3 4 | Groups: | php.internals |
| Request: | Send a blank email to internals+get-120143@lists.php.net to get a copy of this message | ||
On Thu, 27 Apr 2023 at 09:18, Claude Pache <claude.pache@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> This is the the description of the PHP Decimal extension, which does
> indeed the Right Thing. But BCMath (which is not PHP Decimal) does have
> “mind-blowing counter-intuitive” issues (at least in
strict_types=0
> gR`0V@ mode)
> with floats. Formally, the root of the issue is in PHP type juggling, not
> in bcmath itself; but from a user perspective, it doesn’t matter.
> Specifically, passing a float to the bc*() functions will “work” most of
> the time; but in rare cases, when PHP decides to use the scientific
> notation while casting it as string, it will fail with an “argument is not
> well-formed” error, which is puzzling for the unprepared user.
>
Fair enough; I've never used bcmath, so was lacking the context of that
remark.
I still don't think it justifies the "mind-blowing" and "band-aid"
hyperbole, though. It could give better errors, but the solution is still
"never initialise decimals from floats", and that would be true whatever
was built into PHP.
Regards,
--
Rowan Tommins
[IMSoP]