| Both sides previous revisionPrevious revisionNext revision | Previous revisionNext revisionBoth sides next revision |
| rfc:chaining_comparison [2016/12/22 17:40] – bp1222 | rfc:chaining_comparison [2017/02/12 18:59] – bp1222 |
|---|
| |
| ===== Introduction ===== | ===== Introduction ===== |
| This RFC proposes a syntax change to allow the chaining together of comparison and equality operations ''[==, !=, !==, ===, <, <=, >, >=]'' to allow arbitrary comparisons. The initial request that spawned this RFC[1] was initially only for interval checking. Discussion on the thread expanded the scope of the request to go from strictly interval checking to allowing more arbitrary number of comparisons. It evolved from there to expand to a majority of the comparison operations. | This RFC proposes a syntax change to allow arbitrary chaining together of comparison and equality operations ''[==, !=, !==, ===, <, <=, >, >=]''. The initial request that spawned this RFC[1] was initially only for interval checking. Discussion on the thread expanded the scope of the request to go from strictly interval checking to allowing more arbitrary number of comparisons. It evolved from there to expand to a majority of the comparison operations. The primary benefit to this proposal would be to make for more readable code when doing numerous comparisons between a single variable. |
| |
| <file php> | <file php> |
| |
| /* | /* |
| * To allow this to be functionally the same | * To be functionally equivalent to this syntax |
| */ | */ |
| if (0 < $a < 100) { | if (0 < $a < 100) { |
| ===== Proposal ===== | ===== Proposal ===== |
| Proposals herein will contain a dump of relevant AST (php-ast) nodes and OPCodes (vld) to better visualize the compilation, and execution. | Proposals herein will contain a dump of relevant AST (php-ast) nodes and OPCodes (vld) to better visualize the compilation, and execution. |
| | |
| ==== Comparison Chaining ==== | ==== Comparison Chaining ==== |
| The proposal creates a new AST operation type ''ZEND_AST_COMPARE_OP'' which will be compiled in a left-recursive required manor. In doing this compilation we ensure short cutting of righter operations if the left sides have evaluated to false. To accomplish this we introduce a new means of emitting an operation, by noting where a ''JMPZ_EX'' may need to exist (see implementations for ''zend_emit_op_at''). This will shift operations that may have been emitted by compiling the right side of this AST compare to allow jumping over them if the left side of the operation is evaluated to false. I believe this means is necessary because we can't just shortcut if the left operation is false, ''false < $a++'' should still evaluate the right part of the expression. We should only inject the JMPZ_EX ops, IF, the left child is a chained ''ZEND_AST_COMPARE_OP''. The proposal also changes the associativity of the equality, and comparison, operations to being left associative. | The proposal creates a new AST operation type ''ZEND_AST_COMPARE_OP'' which will be compiled in a left-recursive manor. |
| |
| <file php> | <file php> |
| */ | */ |
| </file> | </file> |
| | |
| | ==== False Short Circuiting ==== |
| | In doing this compilation we can ensure short cutting of righter operations if the left sides have evaluated to false. To accomplish this we introduce a new means of emitting an operation, by noting where a ''JMPZ_EX'' may need to exist (see implementations for ''zend_emit_op_at''). This will shift operations that may have been emitted by compiling the right side of this AST compare to allow jumping over them if the left side of the operation is evaluated to false. I believe this means is necessary because we can't just shortcut if the left operation is false, ''false < $a++'' should still evaluate the right part of the expression. We should only inject the JMPZ_EX ops, IF, the left child is a chained ''ZEND_AST_COMPARE_OP''. The proposal also changes the associativity of the equality, and comparison, operations to being left associative. |
| |
| ===== Backward Incompatible Changes ===== | ===== Backward Incompatible Changes ===== |
| |
| ===== Patches and Tests ===== | ===== Patches and Tests ===== |
| Implementation #1: comparisons evaluated before equality: https://github.com/php/php-src/compare/master...bp1222:multi-compare | Working Implementation: comparisons evaluated before equality: https://github.com/php/php-src/compare/master...bp1222:multi-compare |
| | |
| Implementation #2: comparisons and equality evaluated together: https://github.com/php/php-src/compare/master...bp1222:multi-compare-equal-prec | |
| |
| Will need eyes of those more familiar with AST/VM to review. | Will need eyes of those more familiar with AST/VM to review. |
| |
| For changes affecting the core language, you should also provide a patch for the language specification. | |
| |
| ===== Implementation ===== | ===== Implementation ===== |