PHP RFC: Add typehint accessors to ReflectionParameter

Version: 1.0
Date: 2014-05-29
Author: Sara Golemon, pollita@php.net
Status: Under Discussion
First Published at: http://wiki.php.net/rfc/reflectionparameter.typehint

Introduction

This RFC proposes improvements to the way we handle type information in reflection. This work will make it easier for writing tools that convert type information from reflection into strings. This RFC also adds support the reflection API for type information return types if the Return Type RFC is accepted.

Proposal

This RFC proposes a new class ReflectionTypeAnnotation to represent type information. This RFC adds methods to ReflectionParameter to use this new class: ReflectionParameter::hasTypeAnnotation() and ReflectionParameter::getTypeAnnotation(). If the Return Type RFC is accepted it will then it will also use this new ReflectionTypeAnnotation class.

The class ReflectionTypeAnnotation also has __toString method to make parsing function/method signatures and replicating them for mocking frameworks simpler; current mocking frameworks have to cast the ReflectionParameter to a string, then text parse that string to retrieve the information.

Proposed PHP Version(s)

PHP 7

New Reflection class type: ReflectionTypeAnnotation

class ReflectionTypeAnnotation implements Reflector {
    public function __toString() { /* returns type annotation string (e.g. "array", "stdClass", etc...) */ }
    public function isArray() { /* true if the typehint is "array" */ }
    public function isCallable() { /* true if the typehint is "callable" */ }
    public function isNullable() { /* true if NULL is an acceptable value */ }
}

Implementation and new unit test

Original proposal: https://github.com/sgolemon/php-src/commit/d352793a69eb549ffe4b04c4b5dedae2cd4ed831

Current proposal: https://github.com/sgolemon/php-src/compare/reflection.typehint