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Bug #60278 BC Break + warning in array_diff with nested arrays
Submitted: 2011-11-12 09:55 UTC Modified: 2011-11-15 21:02 UTC
From: kontakt at beberlei dot de Assigned:
Status: Not a bug Package: Arrays related
PHP Version: 5.4.0RC1 OS:
Private report: No CVE-ID: None
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From: kontakt at beberlei dot de
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 [2011-11-12 09:55 UTC] kontakt at beberlei dot de 
Description:
------------
A warning occurs when you call array_diff with one nested and one flat array. This code worked on 5.3.

Test script:
---------------
<?php

$a = array(0 => "id");
$b = array(0 => array("foo" => "bar"));

$d = array_diff($a, $b);

var_dump($d);

Expected result:
----------------
array(1) {
  [0]=>
  string(2) "id"
}


Actual result:
--------------
Notice: Array to string conversion in /home/benny/code/php/tests/array_diff.php on line 6
array(1) {
  [0]=>
  string(2) "id"
}

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 [2011-11-15 00:55 UTC] felipe@php.net 
The difference is only the E_NOTICE message, the code behaves in the sameway.
 [2011-11-15 21:02 UTC] rasmus@php.net 
This isn't a BC break. This is a NOTICE telling you that your code isn't doing 
what you think it is. As per the array_diff() docs:

"This function only checks one dimension of a n-dimensional array."

Change your example to this:

$a = [0 => ["foo"]];
$b = [0 => ["bar"]];
$d = array_diff($a, $b);

This comes back and tells you that the arrays are identical. But they obviously 
aren't. Or even worse:

$a = [0 => "Array"];
$b = [0 => ["bar"]];
$d = array_diff($a, $b);

This also comes back with no difference between $a and $b exactly because the 
function only checks one level deep and you are passing it multi-dimensional 
arrays. Notices like this are there to tell you when you are doing something 
that might not produce the results you are expecting, and this is a very obvious 
example of that.
 [2011-11-15 21:02 UTC] rasmus@php.net
-Status: Open +Status: Bogus
 
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