Re: [Discussion][RFC Idea] Cast Variables by Reference

On Mon, Jul 7, 2025, at 18:22, Joseph Leedy wrote: > Hello, I'm Joseph, or Seph for short. I'm a long time listener, but a > first-time caller. I've had an idea rattling around in my noggin for a while > that I'd like your feedback on: > > As a developer, I would like to have variables of one type cast to another > type automatically so that I do not need to assign the variable to itself. > > Instead of the following: > > ```php > $price = '5.0123'; > ... > $price = (float) $price; > > var_dump($price); // Result: float: 5.0123 > ``` > > What if we could do this instead? > > ```php > $price = '5.0123'; > ... > (float) $price; > > var_dump($price); // Result: float: 5.0123 > ``` > > If everyone thinks this a good idea, I would be willing to put together an > RFC and work on the implementation myself, with guidance from an experienced > core developer. I have no experience with C/C++, other than a brief foray > more than twenty years ago, but I am willing to learn. > > Thank you for your consideration! Also, a huge thank you to everyone who > has made PHP what it is today! > > (**Note**: No AI was used in the writing of this message.) > Hey Seph, This is basically how non-strict mode works; there's no need for a cast. (I very rarely use strict mode, so I was a little confused on why you'd ever want to do this) — Rob