note 89757 added to language.types.string

One thing I have noticed (using PHP 5.2.4) is that alphanumeric text starting with letters or underscore without spaces and operators in PHP code without single or double quotes is interpreted as a string. I noticed this when trying to access a member variable from an object and getting an integer returned on what I thought should have been a syntax error. The text cannot correspond to most PHP keywords since that would generate a fatal error. <?php class MyObject { private $__internal_array = array(); //insert code for overloading __get(), __set(), etc. to //access items from $__internal_array } $object = new MyObject(); //thought this would give a syntax error, put param returned an int somehow some_function($object-membervar); //correct echo hiImAString; //correct echo hello.world._6789; //correct thisisastandalonestring; //correct, outputs 0 echo string+anotherstring-yetanotherstring; //correct, outputs 1concatenated echo true.false.concatenated; //incorrect, syntax error echo cantdothis.1234567890; //incorrect, syntax error, use of PHP keywords echo try.and.do.this.if.you.can.else.break; ?> Any other combination of the above with operators and other special characters will generate fatal errors. I think it would be the opinion of many people that this form of a string is not at all practical and should never be used at all. Personally, I think this looks like a bug, but I could be wrong. However, this is something else one could watch out for when debugging since this is hard to pick up in code especially when expecting integer or boolean values. Cheers, Jarobman ---- Server IP: 66.207.199.35 Probable Submitter: 74.216.0.200 ---- Manual Page -- http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.types.string.php Edit -- https://master.php.net/note/edit/89757 Del: integrated -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/89757/integrated Del: useless -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/89757/useless Del: bad code -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/89757/bad+code Del: spam -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/89757/spam Del: non-english -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/89757/non-english Del: in docs -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/89757/in+docs Del: other reasons-- https://master.php.net/note/delete/89757 Reject -- https://master.php.net/note/reject/89757 Search -- https://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php