rfc:safe_cast

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rfc:safe_cast [2014/11/19 20:32] – v0.1.7 - Allow positive signs ajfrfc:safe_cast [2014/11/19 22:38] – ext/filter allows objects w/ __toString ajf
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   * Date: 2014-10-20, Last Updated 2014-11-14   * Date: 2014-10-20, Last Updated 2014-11-14
   * Author: Andrea Faulds, ajf@ajf.me   * Author: Andrea Faulds, ajf@ajf.me
-  * Status: Under Discussion+  * Status: In Voting
   * First Published at: http://wiki.php.net/rfc/safe_cast   * First Published at: http://wiki.php.net/rfc/safe_cast
  
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 Currently, PHP only provides one means of type conversion: explicit casts. These casts never fail or emit errors, making them dangerous to use, as when passed garbage input, they will simply return garbage instead of indicating that something went wrong. This makes it difficult to write robust applications which handle user data. They also prevent any suggestion of strict type hinting for scalar types, because if that were to be added, users would simply use dangerous explicit casts to get around errors and the result would be code that is buggier than it would have been without type hinting at all. Currently, PHP only provides one means of type conversion: explicit casts. These casts never fail or emit errors, making them dangerous to use, as when passed garbage input, they will simply return garbage instead of indicating that something went wrong. This makes it difficult to write robust applications which handle user data. They also prevent any suggestion of strict type hinting for scalar types, because if that were to be added, users would simply use dangerous explicit casts to get around errors and the result would be code that is buggier than it would have been without type hinting at all.
 +
 +For int and float conversion specifically, ''ext/filter'' provides ''FILTER_VALIDATE_INT'' and ''FILTER_VALIDATE_FLOAT''. ''filter_var($foo, FILTER_VALIDATE_INT)'' and ''filter_var($foo, FILTER_VALIDATE_FLOAT)''. However, these are rather unwieldy, encouraging people to use the shorter explicit casts, and suffer from a performance and safety standpoint by their converting values to strings before validating (allowing, for example, booleans, or objects with ''__toString''). Furthermore, their use requires explicit error handling by checking for a FALSE return value. If the programmer forgets to check it, they are no safer than explicit casts.
  
 ===== Proposal ===== ===== Proposal =====
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 ===== Open Issues ===== ===== Open Issues =====
  
-While I'd prefer to return NULL on error, it would also be possible to return FALSE. As this seems to be relatively controversial, it will be put to a vote.+None.
  
 ===== Unaffected PHP Functionality ===== ===== Unaffected PHP Functionality =====
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 As this is not a language change and only introduces new functions, only a 50%+1 majority will be required. The vote will be a straight Yes/No vote on accepting the RFC and merging the patch into master. As this is not a language change and only introduces new functions, only a 50%+1 majority will be required. The vote will be a straight Yes/No vote on accepting the RFC and merging the patch into master.
 +
 +==== Vote ====
 +
 +Voting opened 2014-11-19 and ends 2014-11-29.
 +
 +<doodle title="Should the Safe Casting Functions RFC be accepted, and the patch merged into master?" auth="ajf" voteType="single" closed="false">
 +   * Yes
 +   * No
 +</doodle>
  
 ===== Patches and Tests ===== ===== Patches and Tests =====
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 ===== Changelog ===== ===== Changelog =====
  
 +  * v0.1.8 - ext/filter note in Introduction
   * v0.1.7 - Allow positive signs   * v0.1.7 - Allow positive signs
   * v0.1.6 - Dropped zero round trip data loss principle, added octal and whitespace rationale   * v0.1.6 - Dropped zero round trip data loss principle, added octal and whitespace rationale
rfc/safe_cast.txt · Last modified: 2017/09/22 13:28 by 127.0.0.1

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