Re: [Fwd: [PHP] constant() - php5]

Due to PHPs dynamic typing, unquoted strings are treated as strings unless a constant by that name exists. Thankfully it's clever enough to raise a notice to tell you it couldn't find a constant by that name, which makes debugging much easier. The reason constant() throws a warning rather than a notice is because PHP knows you're looking for a constant by that name and flags it as a more serious error, wheras before, it could just be that you want to use an unquoted string :) If you think it's a bit strange, it may seem so, but logically, if an unquoted number is equivilent to it's quoted counter-part, the same must be true for strings. Nicholas Telford Jochem Maas wrote:

Derick Rethans wrote:

On Fri, 1 Jul 2005, Jochem Maas wrote:

echo constant('CNST'); when: echo CNST; only triggers an E_NOTICE. (assuming, in both cases that CNST is not defined). IMHO it should at most trigger an E_NOTICE.

Did you compare the output of the two statements?

I did.

echo constant('CNST'); shows nothing (except the warning) echo CNST; shows "CNST" (and a notice). This makes perfect sense to me to differentiate between them like this.

ok - agreed that the echo behaviour is logical - but I wasn't actually pertaining to the echo behaviour (and what was being echo'ed wasn't relevant to my original question). my point is that using a constant directly in your code when that constant doesn't exist only causes an E_NOTICE but passing a string to constant() when a constant of the given name doesn't exist causes an E_WARNING. I would either expect both to cause the same level of error OR that trying to use an undefined constant directly in code would cause a lower level of error. but if you say the error output behaviour is expected/correct/desired then I'm happy to except it (and adjust my expectations accordingly) - if you (anyone) could explain why (because I don't grok the logic behind this behaviour) I would be very grateful, maybe it will bring me one step closer to being able to call myself a real programmer. :-/ anyway thanks for taking the time to reply, I gather that you, Derick (amongst others!), have a plate full of PHP work in the form of unicode and date related stuff (which I am very much looking forward to!) - i.e. you are busy-busy, time is short, etc etc. kind rgds, Jochem

Derick