Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=19140&edit=1
ID: 19140
Comment by: mail at waclawjacek dot com
Reported by: jc at mega-bucks dot co dot jp
Summary: foreach fails on empty or unitialized variable
Status: Not a bug
Type: Bug
Package: Arrays related
Operating System: Red Hat Linux 7.2
PHP Version: 4.2.2
Block user comment: N
Private report: N
New Comment:
I second jc. It would be nice not to have to do if ( is_array() ) before every
foreach(), like you don't have to with while(), when the variable is null.
Previous Comments:
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[2002-08-28 05:41:03] der...@php.net
FYI: I clearified this in the manual, it will show up in a few days online.
Derick
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[2002-08-28 05:32:48] jc at mega-bucks dot co dot jp
Neglectful coding? Why do you consider it neglectful coding if I do this for an
array but good coding for a string? PHP treats null strings as empty strings,
why doesn't it do the same for arrays?
All I want to know is, what is the documented behaviour for foreach on a null
array. If there is no documented behaviour, let's add to the documentation.
Something like:
"foreach will fail on an unitialized (null) array".
I had assumed that since PHP is usually treats null strings as empty strings it
would do the same with null arrays. I was wrong. I tried to find documentation
on what foreach will do in the case of a null array and could not find any.
I agree with you that this is neglectfull coding. It would be nice if there was
documentation to back it up :)
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[2002-08-28 05:17:20] cy...@php.net
if you insist on neglectful coding, lower your error_reporting level.
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[2002-08-28 05:11:43] jc at mega-bucks dot co dot jp
What is the documented/expected behaviour for foreach on "null" arrays?
PHP has not problems with statements such as:
echo "$a";
So I don't see why it should have a problem with:
foreach ($a as $val) {};
Actaully I *do* understand why it is a problem :) I just would like it to
suggest that foreach be able to handle null arrays. It would be *such* a nice
feature ;)
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[2002-08-28 04:48:58] jc at mega-bucks dot co dot jp
$a is an unitialized variable. It is not an empty variable ($a = "").
It is declared but not initialized. It has no value since the function returns
nothing.
The problem is that PHP cannot tell that $a is supposed to be an array since $a
has no value or content whatsoever.
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