Edit report at http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=53202&edit=1
ID: 53202
Updated by: ras...@php.net
Reported by: agent_harris at secure-mail dot biz
Summary: unexpected return value getConstant
Status: Wont fix
Type: Feature/Change Request
Package: Reflection related
Operating System: Ubuntu Linux 9.04
PHP Version: 5.3.3
Block user comment: N
New Comment:
We can't change things to suddenly start throwing exceptions because
uncaught
exceptions are fatal and it would break all sorts of code. Plus nothing
in core
PHP throws exceptions by default.
Previous Comments:
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[2010-10-29 18:25:26] agent_harris at secure-mail dot biz
hmm, ok the situation regarding NULL values i have obviously overseen.
the question is imho not how trivial it is to wrap it (sure using
getConstants is an option). but why is throwing an exception not an
option. it is what any other good language or library would do. but if
it has something to do with compatibility for legacy code then maybe it
should be considered in previous php versions to introduce something
like a "strict option" for newer code. otherwise new functionality will
always get wrapped.
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[2010-10-29 17:17:47] ras...@php.net
I don't see how returning NULL helps here. You can just as easily have
defined
the constant to be NULL. There is no value we can return that is not
definable,
and throwing an exception isn't an option.
You have 2 ways to check it further if you do get false back.
defined('class::constant') will tell you if it is defined and
ReflectionClass
::getConstants() will give you an array of all the defined constants
along with
their values. It is trivial to wrap this and throw your own exception
if the
constant isn't defined.
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[2010-10-29 15:51:29] agent_harris at secure-mail dot biz
Description:
------------
to make it short:
if you try to get the value of a constant via
ReflectionClass::getConstant(...) and the constant name you specified
does not exist, the function returns bool(false).
but maybe you have really defined a constant as bool(false). then you
are not able to distinguish between these two possibilities.
in that case the preferred behavior should be to throw and exception or
return the null value.
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Edit this bug report at http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=53202&edit=1
