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

Not possible: if ($xx = some_function()) {} is perfectly
legal.

right it's legal - but it's so rare that it is usually a mistake, which is why most c compilers will generate a warning for it.  would have saved me a good 30 minutes tonight spent searching for the cause of a bug... :(

  -benjamin

on a side note, it is a good practice to swap the 'assignment arguments':
if ('foo' == $bar), since 'foo' = $bar does produce a warning.

Rare???  What do you mean, rare???

Nearly every script I write uses this construct multiple times.  Sometimes, it occurs more often than equality comparisons.  Changing this would make my life hell!!

Cheers!

Mike

What are some other potential "strict" mode watches?  Some  people ask for an optional "strict" mode with various options, this could be a good start?  Imagine a strict mode directive where when on, various options could be set at runtime, like assignment_inside_expression = true :)

IMHO, this behavior shhould not be implemented.
This construct is used widely actually (almost in every script i've ever written).
And usually warnings imply that something is wrong, while there is nothing wrong with that.

-Tal

Nobody is wanting this to be a core feature (I would think not even error_reporting(E_ALL) would turn on strict mode) but rather part of an optional strict mode directive in PHP.  AFAICT, most php-dev people are against a strict mode option altogether, and this feature request is only part of that.  I, along with you and many others, love to do assignments in expressions.  The minority wanting a mode similar to perls "use strict" or VBscripts "option explicit" or a C compiler or whatever, want optional options like this one.  These people would/should understand what their getting into by enabling strict mode.  BTW, I did not mean assignment_inside_expression to be a directive in php.ini but rather an option for, let's say,  set_strict_mode_options().

I've searched archives and couldn't find the arguments against having this mode available but obviously some exist.  Like, how PHP is simply not a strict language so deal with it.  Or how adding an optional directive like this will confuse some people and cause headaches.  Or how difficult and resource intensive such a change might be. *shrug*  This may need to be a faq.  Changing topic to be more generic.

Related requests: #14285, #14405.

sidenote:  c compilers that warn on
  
   if ( a = b )

usualy accept

   if ( ( a = b ) )

so only top level assignments are considert harmfull