CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phparraysfunctionarguments
John
John

Reputation: 16007

What is being checked in this function?

I'm trying to port some PHP code over to C#, and I ran across a PHP function of this form:

function DoStuff($myVar, array $myArray1, array $myArray2 = array())
{
    // some code not involving $myArray2

    if ($myArray2)
    {
        // do things with $myArray2, but if I arrive here, what
        // condition was met?
    }
}

My best guess (which may be completely wrong) after looking over a number of appropriate pages in php.net as to what's happening:

Is this correct? If not, what is correct? Thanks!

Upvotes: 2

Views: 60

Answers (2)

Rupert Madden-Abbott
Rupert Madden-Abbott

Reputation: 13298

You are correct and here is an explanation:

The type-hint array says that $myArray2 can only accept an array. The default value of array() says that $myArray2 is optional and, if it is not passed, an empty array will be assigned.

Given that the only thing that $myArray2 could be at the time of the if conditional is an array, you can confirm what will be accepted by type casting to a boolean. In this case, an array is always converted to true unless it has no elements in which case it is false.

Aside: You should be careful to note that whilst it is currently illegal to pass NULL in as a parameter to both $myArray1 and $myArray2, it is legal to set a default value of $myArray2 as NULL. In that case, you could also pass in NULL to that parameter. Additionally, the conditional would then also be checking that the parameter was not set to NULL.

Upvotes: 2

ThiefMaster
ThiefMaster

Reputation: 318548

Yes, this is correct. The function will also throw a fatal error if something that is not an array is passed for $myArray1 or $myArray2.

Upvotes: 6

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