Re: [RFC] Change behaviour of array sort functions to return a copy of the sorted array

On 21/10/2024 00:16, mickmackusa wrote:

On Mon, Oct 21, 2024 at 3:44 AM Gina P. Banyard <internals@gpb.moe> wrote:

    Hello internals,

    I would like to propose a short RFC to make the return value of
    the sort() and similar functions more useful:
    https://wiki.php.net/rfc/array-sort-return-array

    I intend for the discussion to last 2 weeks and then open the vote.

    Best regards,

    Gina P. Banyard

I like this RFC because I have a distaste for any function/method that always returns a single value -- the return value indicates nothing usable. I also find that I prefer to avoid array_walk() because I can't elegantly nest it in other function calls or return/print the traversed data. Might the transition be simpler if the naming convention is standardized to have array_ meaning "returns the input [sorted|shuffled|traversed] array" and without the prefix means "modify by reference"? That naming convention will not look absurd among other native array_ functions and prefix-trimmed functions will afford developers to continue using the original modify by reference behavior (if they have performance or memory reasons).

| returns copy of array  | by reference    |

| ---------------------- |---------------- |

| array_sort()           | sort()|
|array_rsort()         | rsort() |
| array_asort()          | asort() |
| array_arsort()         | arsort() |
| array_ksort()          | ksort() |
| array_krsort()         | krsort() |
| array_natsort()        | natsort() |
| array_natcasesort()    | natcasesort()   |
| array_usort()          | usort() |
| array_uasort()         | uasort() |

| array_uksort() | uksort() |

| array_multisort()      | multisort() |
| array_shuffle()        | shuffle()        |
| array_walk()           | walk()           |

| array_walk_recursive() | walk_recursive() | Good luck regardless, mickmackusa

I like this in theory, but array_multisort() and array_walk*() already broke your proposed convention:( Cheers, Bilge