Hi all,
I want to start a discussion about a PHP behaviour that drives me crazy for years. For the beginning I would like you to guess what the result of the following snippet will be:
var_dump('PHP' == 0);
I know the difference of == and === but the result was unexcpected for me. And I hope it is also for you. The result is simply "true". Why is it true? I guess this happens because of the conversion from 'PHP' to a number which will be 0 in PHP. And of course 0 equals 0. There are several points that I just want to drop into this mailinglist to discuss about:
1. Why? :)
2. Why is PHP converting the String into a Number instead of converting the Number into a String? (If my guess concerning the behaviour is correct)
3. Why is PHP throwing data away which has the developer explicit given to the interpreter?
4. Why does var_dump(0 == 'PHP'); has the same result as the snippet above? This meens that the equal operator is not explictly implemented in the string or integer?
5. Thats a bug I have opend: https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=51739 where I also had the same problems because "8315e839da08e2a7afe6dd12ec58245d" was converted into float(INF) by throwing everything starting from "da08.." away.
I am using PHP since the year 2000. This means I have 13 years of experience in PHP and I really would like you to NOT just answer "works as designed". I know it works as designed but I want to discuss the design. Also I know that the "fuzzy" behaviour of type conversion is a main feature of PHP. I guess this is one point which makes PHP that successfull. But - in my opinion - the described behaviour is to fuzzy and just confuses developers.
Best Regards
Daniel Buschke
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