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Bug #76470 count(false)===1
Submitted: 2018-06-13 13:53 UTC Modified: 2018-06-13 14:16 UTC
From: mordyg at gmail dot com Assigned:
Status: Not a bug Package: Variables related
PHP Version: 7.1.18 OS: N/A
Private report: No CVE-ID: None
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 [2018-06-13 13:53 UTC] mordyg at gmail dot com 
Description:
------------
https://github.com/php/php-src/blob/master/ext/standard/array.c#L829

[] is falsey, so count(false) should equal count([])

Code shows otherwise.

Test script:
---------------
echo []?'Y':'N'; // outputs N
echo false?'Y':'N'; //outputs N
echo count([])?'Y':'N'; //outputs N
echo count(false)?'Y':'N'; //outputs Y

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 [2018-06-13 13:59 UTC] mordyg at gmail dot com 
Just to clarify ..
count(null) ===0

So if you say this is not a bug as it a non-countable, then you have a new bug, that count(null) should be 1, not 0
 [2018-06-13 14:01 UTC] requinix@php.net
-Status: Open +Status: Not a bug
 [2018-06-13 14:01 UTC] requinix@php.net 
Thank you for taking the time to write to us, but this is not
a bug. Please double-check the documentation available at
http://www.php.net/manual/ and the instructions on how to report
a bug at http://bugs.php.net/how-to-report.php

http://php.net/manual/en/function.count.php
> Returns the number of elements in array_or_countable. When the parameter is neither an array nor an object with
> implemented Countable interface, 1 will be returned. There is one exception, if array_or_countable is NULL, 0
> will be returned.
 [2018-06-13 14:04 UTC] danack@php.net 
This is likely to not be fixed as although it's clearly not great behaviour, it is how it has been for ages, so fixing it would 'break' lots of 'working' code.

However from PHP 7.2, trying to count a non-countable thing gives a warning notice: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/counting_non_countables

If you have an error handler, that converts all warnings to exceptions, the behaviour is then acceptable.
 [2018-06-13 14:05 UTC] nikic@php.net 
See also https://3v4l.org/WUgRo for why it works like it does. But as @danack mentioned, this kind of stuff is exactly why count() generates a warning starting with PHP 7.2.
 [2018-06-13 14:05 UTC] mordyg at gmail dot com 
You have 2 exceptions ... why not make it 3?

http://prntscr.com/jui1w0
 [2018-06-13 14:16 UTC] nikic@php.net 
This is not another exception, as an undefined variable access returns NULL. I've removed the note in http://svn.php.net/viewvc?view=revision&revision=345126, as it is both redundant and nowadays quite unnecessary.
 
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