note 54174 deleted from language.operators.logical by nlopess

Note Submitter: Serafina ---- Because the OR shorthand for an if block can produce more readable code with less typing, it is tempting to produce functions that will return FALSE on failure or some other data type on success. Like mysql_connect, which "Returns a MySQL link identifier on success, or FALSE on failure." The novice php php developer should avoid creating functions which might produce a FALSE on failure and an integer on success, if there is any chance that the integer might be zero. <?php blah blah blah; $i = give_me_liberty() or die("FATAL DB ERROR!"); blah blah blah; ?> If the function give_me_liberty() occasionally completes successfully and produces a zero, the result could be perplexing.