Bug #70618 [NEW]: Ternary eccentricity

From: symphonymous at hotmail dot com Operating system: Ubuntu PHP version: 5.6.14RC1 Package: PHP Language Specification Bug Type: Bug Bug description:Ternary eccentricity Description: ------------ I suspect this is a bug as the behaviour is a little worrying. I was using the following in a Laravel program $fieldLabel = // has a field label been manually defined ($fieldLabel = $this->hasAttribute($fieldValue, 'FieldLabel')) ? $fieldLabel : ($this->parseFieldType($fieldValue) != 'hidden') ? ucfirst($fieldKey) : ''; However when $label was defined it was resolving to $fieldLabel = ucfirst($fieldKey); (ie. the second ternary). the resolution was to parenthesise the second ternary (which I should have done in the first place): $fieldLabel = // has a field label been manually defined ($fieldLabel = $this->hasAttribute($fieldValue, 'FieldLabel')) ? $fieldLabel : (($this->parseFieldType($fieldValue) != 'hidden') ? ucfirst($fieldKey) : ''); The bug, in my eyes, is that aforementioned code should have thrown an exception as the ternary statement gave an ambiguous result. best Jon Test script: --------------- // here is the same issue again in a simpler form, tested with // "php artisan tinker" $foo = 1; $bar = ($bar = $foo) ? $bar : ($bar = 2) ? 2 : 'null'; Expected result: ---------------- either an exception as the statement is ambiguous or 1; I would suggest the former. Actual result: -------------- 2 -- Edit bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=70618&edit=1 -- Try a snapshot (PHP 5.4): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70618&r=trysnapshot54 Try a snapshot (PHP 5.5): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70618&r=trysnapshot55 Try a snapshot (trunk): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70618&r=trysnapshottrunk Fixed in SVN: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70618&r=fixed Fixed in release: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70618&r=alreadyfixed Need backtrace: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70618&r=needtrace Need Reproduce Script: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70618&r=needscript Try newer version: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70618&r=oldversion Not developer issue: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70618&r=support Expected behavior: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70618&r=notwrong Not enough info: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70618&r=notenoughinfo Submitted twice: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70618&r=submittedtwice register_globals: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70618&r=globals PHP 4 support discontinued: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70618&r=php4 Daylight Savings: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70618&r=dst IIS Stability: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70618&r=isapi Install GNU Sed: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70618&r=gnused Floating point limitations: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70618&r=float No Zend Extensions: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70618&r=nozend MySQL Configuration Error: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70618&r=mysqlcfg