PHP RFC: Your Title Here

• Version: 0.1
• Date: 2013-12-19
• Author:
• Status: Draft
• First Published at: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/normalize_inc_dec

This proposal aims to make the current behaviour more intuitive:

// booleans
$a = false; ++$a; // bool(false)
$a = true; --$a; // bool(true)
 
// null values
$a = null; --$a; // null
 
// empty strings
$a = ''; ++$a; // string(1) "1"
 
// non-numeric strings
$a = '12d9'; 
++$a; // string(4) "12e0"
++$a; // float(13)

For strings, it makes two new functions available:

• str_inc($str) - to perform the current string increments.
• str_dec($str) - the string decrement.

The following behaviour is being proposed:

// booleans
$a = false; ++$a; // int(1)
$a = true; --$a; // int(0)
 
// null values
$a = null; --$a; // int(-1)
 
// empty strings
$a = ''; ++$a; // int(1)
 
// non-numeric strings
$a = '12d9'; 
++$a; // string(4) "12e0" + Notice: String increment is deprecated, use str_inc() instead in php shell code on line 1
++$a; // float(13)

None, since incrementing boolean and null values wasn't possible in the first place.

Next 5.x

Introduce a notice for the current string increment use case. This will help developers spot their usage more easily.

Next major

Removal of string increment using ++ and --.

None.

The changes do not affect the following data types:

• array
• int
• float
• object
• resource

Yay or nay.

Coming soon ...

N/A

Links to external references, discussions or RFCs

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