Re: Add is_vectorlike($array) function

On Sat, May 6, 2017 at 9:42 AM, Rowan Collins <rowan.collins@gmail.com> wrote: > 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. > Ah, so you would do something like private serializeArray(array $data) { return is_vector($data) ? $this->serializeVector($data) : $this->serializeAssoc($data); } is that right? > 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. > Ah, that's a great example and makes perfect sense now! Thanks :) > > 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] > > -- > PHP Internals - PHP Runtime Development Mailing List > To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php > >