Re: Type hinting misunderstood

On Sat, Jan 05, 2008 at 07:34:04PM -0800, Mike Lively wrote: > input is going to makes it's way into your api at some point. Now of course you can (and > should) be filtering this > input before it is used, but if imo when dealing with a loosely typed language where the same > input could be hinted as an > int in one function it eventually reaches, and a string in another. > The point being I understand you may be targeting 'internal stuff' but programming > (especially web development) is > centered around manipulating/reading input to perform actions...just because it's not > 'intended' doesn't mean it's going > to never happen. > Also, I am pretty sure PDO returns results from at least mysql and sqlite as strings regardless > of their type in the > database...or are results from the database also not something type hints are inteded for? PLEASE READ CAREFULLY You have NOT understood what type hinting is about. You are confusing the TYPE and the VALUE. What type hinting means is: * is the TYPE correct ? If so succeed. * can the VALUE be 100% converted to the desired TYPE (eg '5' to int) ? If so succeed. * fail Type HINTING is not type ENFORCEMENT. PHP type juggling is still allowed, so PDO returning results as strings is quite OK as long as what is defined to be numeric *really* has a VALUE that is a number. OK: the above does not apply with some things like resources since you can't convert them to/from a string in a meaninful way. -- Alain Williams Linux Consultant - Mail systems, Web sites, Networking, Programmer, IT Lecturer. +44 (0) 787 668 0256 http://www.phcomp.co.uk/ Parliament Hill Computers Ltd. Registration Information: http://www.phcomp.co.uk/contact.php Chairman of UKUUG: http://www.ukuug.org/ #include <std_disclaimer.h>