PHP RFC: Alphanumeric Decrement

• Version: 1.0
• Date: 2013-12-16
• Author: Andrea Faulds ajf@ajf.me
• Status: Declined
• First Published at: http://wiki.php.net/rfc/alphanumeric_decrement

This will add support for decrementing alphanumeric strings (“ab”, for example) to complement the existing incrementing behaviour.

At present, incrementing alphanumeric strings is supported. For example:

$x = "z";
$x++;
// $x is now "aa"

However, decrementing alphanumeric strings is not:

$x = "z";
$x--;
// $x is still "z"

Under this proposal, alphanumeric strings would be decrementable:

$x = "z";
$x--;
// $x is now "y"

It would also handle the edge case of decrementing from “a”, choosing to result in 0 (this may be subject to change):

$x = "a";
$x--;
// $x is now 0

The patch at present additionally changes how empty strings are incremented. At present, it works as follows:

$x = "";
$x++;
// $x is now "1" (string)
$x = "";
$x--;
// $x is now -1 (int)

With this patch, it is now consistent:

$x = "";
$x--;
// $x is now "-1" (string)

This might arguably be a BC break, as now decrementing for these strings would work, while existing code might assume that doesn't work. I doubt there is any code relying on that though, especially since “a”++ is a relatively obscure feature.

Next PHP 5.x. Failing that, next PHP x.

None.

None.

None.

None.

How should decrementing “a” be handled? The patch and behaviour as proposed decrement to 0, however possibly not decrementing and emitting a warning might make more sense.

Does not affect $x += 1 and $x -= 1, nor $x = $x + 1 and $x = $x - 1, as both of these do not support alphanumeric increment at present.

In future, alphanumeric increment being supported $x += 1 and $x = $x + 1 might be desirable, but that is not within the scope of this RFC.

Merge into PHP 5.6? (Will assume this requires 2/3 majority, due to new language feature)

Voting started 2014-01-21 and ended 2014-01-28.

Alphanumeric Decrement
Real name	Yes	No
ajf (ajf)
chobieeee (chobieeee)
datibbaw (datibbaw)
daverandom (daverandom)
derick (derick)
dm (dm)
dmitry (dmitry)
dsp (dsp)
krakjoe (krakjoe)
laruence (laruence)
levim (levim)
lstrojny (lstrojny)
malukenho (malukenho)
peehaa (peehaa)
philstu (philstu)
pollita (pollita)
shm (shm)
stas (stas)
treffynnon (treffynnon)
tyrael (tyrael)
willfitch (willfitch)
Final result:	0	21
This poll has been closed.

https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/546

Considered final patch, unless bugs are found.

Not merged in at present.

Mailing list discussion: http://marc.info/?l=php-internals&m=138687859827708&w=1

None as yet?