Re: Dots and spaces in variable names are converted to underscores.

Once upon a time, a long time ago, PHP imported all GET/POST/COOKIE data as variables, for the convenience of the developer. This was called "register_globals" $a.b is not a valid variable name, so it was changed to $a_b to be a valid variable name. Nowadays, I see no real reason to keep doing this, other than BC. And I'm not sure who would actually use 'a.b' and then expect 'a_b', but I have to assume somebody has done that, perhaps consuming an API from somewhere else. Short-term, your options are to use $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] and parse it yourself, or "don't do that". Long-term, I suggest you lobby for this to change in PHP 6, if it isn't already in the works. For BC, I suppose PHP could have *both* 'a.b' and 'a_b', or yet another php.ini flag (sorry!) to choose the behaviour. On Wed, January 20, 2010 3:45 pm, Nathan Rixham wrote: > Dots and spaces in variable names are converted to underscores. For > example <input name="a.b" /> becomes $_POST["a_b"]. > > Any reason why? and any way to modify this behaviour to preserve dots > and spaces? (dots specifically) > > reason, when building "linked data" / rdf based applications using PHP > it's most beneficial to use subject / predicate URIs (eg > http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/mbox) as form input names. > > also worth noting that if you send: > <input name="a.b[c.d]" /> > you'll receive the following in php: > $_POST[a_b] => array('c.d' => val) > note no conversion of c.d to c_d > > regards, > > Nathan > > -- > PHP Internals - PHP Runtime Development Mailing List > To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php > > -- Some people ask for gifts here. I just want you to buy an Indie CD for yourself: http://cdbaby.com/search/from/lynch