note 114671 added to language.variables.basics

While the recommendation here is to initialize variables, there is a very good reason to definitely initialize variables. I just had the unpleasant task of making numerous folks happy that the Apache "error_log" is now much smaller. We had over 1500 variables that showed up as "error" in the error_log file. In many cases just one uninitialized variable might cause 10s or 100s of thousands of records to be entered in the "error_log". While it may not be necessary to initialize variables, there can be a significant cost if you do not do so. And no, that website was not willing to lower the bar and not write to the "error_log" file if it was simply a case of uninitialized variables. It was also the case that in a small percentage of cases the variables newly initialized caused me to scratch my head and conclude that a blank or zero might cause different logic to occur. ---- Server IP: 72.52.91.14 Probable Submitter: 24.98.27.207 ---- Manual Page -- http://php.net/manual/en/language.variables.basics.php Edit -- https://master.php.net/note/edit/114671 Del: integrated -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/114671/integrated Del: useless -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/114671/useless Del: bad code -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/114671/bad+code Del: spam -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/114671/spam Del: non-english -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/114671/non-english Del: in docs -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/114671/in+docs Del: other reasons-- https://master.php.net/note/delete/114671 Reject -- https://master.php.net/note/reject/114671 Search -- https://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php