note 101679 added to intro.spl-types

As a reply to tom's comment: Please note that using __toString() to return something which is not a string (eg. another scalar type) does not work anymore starting with PHP 5.3.x. PHP new enforces the return type. $ php -r 'class Foo { public function __toString() { return 42; } } $f = new Foo(); var_dump((string) $f);' PHP Catchable fatal error: Method Foo::__toString() must return a string value in Command line code on line 1 PHP Stack trace: PHP 1. {main}() Command line code:0 It also prevents you from throwing an exception in __toString(). $ php -r 'class Foo { public function __toString() { throw new Exception(); } } $f = new Foo(); var_dump((string) $f);' PHP Fatal error: Method Foo::__toString() must not throw an exception in Command line code on line 0 PHP Stack trace: PHP 1. {main}() Command line code:0 (tested on PHP 5.3.2-1ubuntu4.5 with Suhosin-Patch (cli)) ---- Server IP: 89.31.146.176 Probable Submitter: 78.232.246.115 ---- Manual Page -- http://www.php.net/manual/en/intro.spl-types.php Edit -- https://master.php.net/note/edit/101679 Del: integrated -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/101679/integrated Del: useless -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/101679/useless Del: bad code -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/101679/bad+code Del: spam -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/101679/spam Del: non-english -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/101679/non-english Del: in docs -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/101679/in+docs Del: other reasons-- https://master.php.net/note/delete/101679 Reject -- https://master.php.net/note/reject/101679 Search -- https://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php