ID: 40792 Comment by: andrew at ashearer dot com Reported By: t dot kloppenburg at billiton dot de Status: Open Bug Type: Feature/Change Request Operating System: Linux PHP Version: 5.2.1 New Comment:
I submitted a patch implementing array_get() for PHP 6. If the patch is accepted and there's interest, I could submit the PHP 5 version also. See the ongoing discussion on the PHP internals mailing list: [PHP-DEV] [PATCH] array_get() http://marc.info/?l=php-internals&m=118946242013246&w=2 Patches against HEAD and test suite (PHP 6): http://ashearer.com/software/array_get/2007-09-10-php6/array_get.diff http://ashearer.com/software/array_get/2007-09-10-php6/array_get.phpt Proposal: array_get, a more palatable alternative to ifsetor MOTIVATION There is an unmet need for an accessor that doesn't generate an E_NOTICE when the value is missing, as shown by ongoing discussions and repeated requests for an ifsetor operator. However, ifsetor had a special-case syntax and generally didn't fit very well with the rest of the language. http://devzone.zend.com/node/view/id/1481#Heading2 has a brief summary. See the Related Functions and Proposals section for more. Reading over those ideas (firstset(), coalesce(), :?, ifset(), and a workaround using settype()), most of the best uses boil down to retrieving values from arrays. PROPOSAL As a simpler alternative to constructs such as this common double array reference... $value = isset($_POST['command']) ? $_POST['command'] : ''; I propose an array_get function, like this... $value = array_get($_POST, 'command', ''); The third argument provides a default. This function would require no special syntax, and makes a very common construct easier to read and less error-prone to type. It's a concise way of saying that missing values can be handled gracefully. Though request processing was used as an example, the function has wide applicability across many other uses of associative arrays. For discussion of limitations and alternatives, see the rest of the proposal at: http://marc.info/?l=php-internals&m=118946242013246&w=2 Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2007-03-13 14:35:51] t dot kloppenburg at billiton dot de ok, I code in PHP all this years and I miss it in PHP :) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2007-03-13 11:23:03] t dot kloppenburg at billiton dot de Description: ------------ I miss a function or ArrayObject method to get an element of an array, or alternativly a default value if the key is not set in the array. In python: mydict = {'key1' : 'value1'} val = mydict.get('otherkey', 'defaultvalue') -> 'defaultvalue' This is very handy when dealing with arrays. I'ld be happy to see this in PHP4 and PHP5. It could look like this: $cfg = array('version' => '1.2v', 'othercfg' => 'otherval'); $tmppath = array_get( $cfg, 'tmppath', '/tmp' ); -> '/tmp' or with ArrayObject as: $tmppath = $arrobj->get( 'tmppath', '/tmp' ); -> '/tmp' (if not set in the array) I code in Python since 6 or 7 years, and I really miss this function in everyday-use. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at http://bugs.php.net/?id=40792&edit=1
