Re: Add is_vectorlike($array) function

On 5 May 2017 22:19:51 BST, Ryan Pallas <derokorian@gmail.com> wrote: >I just read this thread and am wondering what exactly is the use case? >Like >are you going to do something if it is vector-like, and do something >different (or not do anything at all) if it's not vector-like? I mean, >if >you have to crawl it, and need a vector, why not just call array_values >and >guarantee you have a vector? I gave one use case in an earlier message: many serialisation formats have a different form for ordered lists vs key-value pairs. As an obvious example, look at JSON arrays and objects, and many other formats have similar types. It can also be quite intuitive to have a function accept either a list of prepared items or a set of key-value pairs representing structured data. For instance, HTTP headers might be prepared like ['User-Agent: example'] or structured like ['User-Agent' => 'example']. Turning the second into the first requires more than just running array_values, but can be skipped if the input is known to be vector-like. Arrays that have integer keys, but not all sequential, can be a bit of an edge case, but treating them as a list throws away information, so it's usually safer to treat them as key-value pairs. Regards, -- Rowan Collins [IMSoP]