you could easily write yourself a typing function to take
care of all that (as someone suggested previously) using the
same familiar syntax as you want to use in the function
definition.
function pay($fromaccount, $toaccount, $amount, $memo) {
$good = checkInput($fromaccount, "int", $toaccount, "int", $memo, "varchar(1000)" )
or die("Invalid input!");
// code...
}
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dr. Evil [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2001 10:31 PM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: [PHP] The need for strong typing...
>
>
> > The one problem with all your musings is that there is no such thing as an
> > integer when it comes to transferring data over http. Everything comes as
> > a string. What is done with these strings when they get to the
> > application is what matters. It's not like there is an HTML form element
> > like <input type=integer> or <input type=float>. All you have is <input
> > type=text> when it comes to users entering data and passing it to you. I
> > fail to see how strong typing helps you here at all. You are going to
> > have to apply some sort of user-space rule once you receive the data. And
> > that is quite easy to do with PHP.
>
> Right, obviously. The only data type in http is the string. However,
> there is obviously some value in being able to say:
>
> function pay(fromaccount int, toaccount int, amount int, memo
> varchar(100)) { // ....
>
> instead of:
>
> function pay(fromaccount, toaccount, amount, memo) { // ....
>
> In the former case, even if there was a mistake in checking user
> input, at least the script will die instead of trying to do some
> operation on some impossible data type. That's a good thing.
>
> Obviously, all user input must be taken from string type to other
> types, but internal functions should be constrained. It's just
> another level of checking. It's exactly the same reason why databases
> allow you to put constraints into table definitions. Sure, you should
> check that the value is positive when you do the INSERT, but you
> should also put a constraint into the table. Lots of things go
> wrong.
>
> Also obviously, this capability isn't needed for most of what PHP is
> used for, and so maybe it doesn't belong in PHP, and maybe those of us
> who are writing more sensitive aps should look into other things. Any
> sugestions?
>
> I don't want people to think that I'm bashing PHP. I'm not. I love
> it. I could never go back to perl or anything else. It's just that
> I'm working on this one particular financial application, and I'm
> paranoid that something will slip through somewhere, and I would feel
> more comfortable if I could define variables that have built-in
> constraints. Can I use classes to do this?
>
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