====== Allow non-scalar keys in ''foreach'' ======
  * version 1.0
  * Date: 2013-01-28
  * Authors: Levi Morrison <levim@php.net>, Nikita Popov <nikic@php.net>
  * Status: Implemented in PHP 5.5 ([[https://github.com/php/php-src/commit/fcc6611de9054327441786e52444b5f8eecdd525|commit]])

===== Current situation =====

The ''Iterator::key'' function can currently return a value of any type, but the handling code in ''foreach'' and several other places only allows integer and string keys to be used. This limitation makes some use-cases unnecessarily complicated. From the SPL two examples are ''MultipleIterator'' and ''SplObjectStorage''.

The ''MutlipleIterator'' allows you to traverse several ''Iterator''s at the same time. It's ''::current'' method returns an array of values and the ''::key'' method returns an array of keys. But due to the ''foreach'' key type limitation the keys can not be directly fetched:

<code php>
$it = new MultipleIterator;
$it->attachIterator($it1);
$it->attachIterator($it2);

// This is NOT possible
foreach ($it as $keys => $values) {
    // ...
}

// Instead you have to use this
foreach ($it as $values) {
    $keys = $it->keys();
    
    // ...
}
</code>

''SplObjectStorage'' is a map/set implementation for object keys. Here the issue is circumvented by returning the keys as values and requiring a manual lookup on the values:

<code php>
// NOT possible
foreach ($objectStore as $key => $value) {
    // ...
}

// Instead you have to use
foreach ($objectStore as $key) {
    $value = $objectStore[$key];
    
    // ...
}
</code>

These are just two examples from core classes, but it obviously also applies in many other cases (and now that we have generators, it will probably become an even larger issue).

Another key issue is that you can't really work around this generically. If you want to write code that is also compatible with ''Iterator''s that return array/object keys, you can no longer use the ''foreach ($it as $k => $v)'' syntax. You are forced to use ''%%foreach ($it as $v) { $k = $it->key(); ... }%%'', but this will obviously only with with ''Iterator''s and not with aggregates, ''Traversable''s or normal arrays. In order to properly support all use cases you'd have to wrap everything in iterators (i.e. make extensive use of ''IteratorIterator'' and ''ArrayIterator''), which obviously is an option, but cumbersome to a degree that nobody does it. What this means is that iterators like ''MultipleIterator'' are to a large part excluded from use in iterator chaining/pipelines (which is probably the most important thing about using iterators).

===== Suggested fix =====

This RFC proposes to lift the restriction and allow values of arbitrary types to be used as keys (in particularly allowing also arrays and objects) in iterators. (Note: This proposal does not suggest allowing those key types in arrays. This is only about ''Iterator''s.)

In order to remove this restriction the internal [[http://lxr.php.net/xref/PHP_TRUNK/Zend/zend_iterators.h#31|''zend_object_iterator_funcs'']] API has to be changed:

<code c>
// This entry:
int (*get_current_key)(zend_object_iterator *iter, char **str_key, uint *str_key_len, ulong *int_key TSRMLS_DC);
// Is replaced with this entry:
void (*get_current_key)(zend_object_iterator *iter, zval *key TSRMLS_DC);
</code>

The handler has to write into the passed ''zval*'' using one of the ''ZVAL_*'' macros.

===== iterator_to_array() =====

When using non-string/int keys ''iterator_to_array'' with the ''$preserve_keys'' option will behave in the same way as PHP would when it does normal array key assignments, i.e. its behavior would be the same as the following PHP snippet:

<code php>
function iterator_to_array($iter) {
    foreach ($iter as $k => $v) {
        $array[$k] = $v;
    }
    return $array;
}
</code>

For array and object keys this would give an ''Illegal offset type'' warning. For ''NULL'' the ''%%""%%'' key is used, doubles are truncated to the integral part, resources use their resource ID and issue a warning, booleans are cast to integers.

In order to support this a new function is added in ''Zend/zend_API.h'' (which more or less reimplements the internal inline function ''zend_fetch_dimension_address_inner''):

<code c>
/* The refcount of value is incremented by the function itself */
ZEND_API int array_set_zval_key(HashTable *ht, zval *key, zval *value);
</code>

===== Patch =====

The patch for this change can be found here: https://github.com/php/php-src/commit/fcc6611de9054327441786e52444b5f8eecdd525

The change itself is rather small, but there are quite a few extensions that require minor adjustments to use the new API.

===== Vote =====

Voting ends on March 6th. A 50% + 1 majority is required. This RFC targets PHP 5.5.

<doodle title="Remove type-restrictions on foreach keys?" auth="nikic" voteType="single" closed="true">
   * Yes
   * No
</doodle>