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Request #29736 instanceof requires class to be loaded
Submitted: 2004-08-18 16:31 UTC Modified: 2006-04-03 14:01 UTC
Votes:2
Avg. Score:4.5 ± 0.5
Reproduced:2 of 2 (100.0%)
Same Version:0 (0.0%)
Same OS:0 (0.0%)
From: hans at velum dot net Assigned:
Status: Closed Package: Feature/Change Request
PHP Version: 5.0.1 OS: *
Private report: No CVE-ID: None
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From: hans at velum dot net
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 [2004-08-18 16:31 UTC] hans at velum dot net
Description:
------------
[pasted from messages on internals@ list]

I like the new $obj instanceof ClassName way of checking class / interface types, .... but this method does have one major drawback compared to the old is_a() approach:

  The class must be loaded in order to perform an instanceof check!

There are many situations where you do not want to have to load every class to see whether a returned object is a class of that type.  In particular for driver classes, the current model requires loading *every* possible driver in order to check to see which type of class was returned.

is_a() works great, but has been deprecated and is now generating E_STRICT errors.


Reproduce code:
---------------
[conributed by Sean Coates on internals@ list]

<?php

class Foo {}

$foo = unserialize('O:3:"Foo":0:{}');

echo '$foo is_a Foo? '. (is_a($foo, 'Foo') ? 'yes' : 'no') ."\n";
echo '$foo instanceof Foo? '. ($foo instanceof Foo ? 'yes' : 'no') ."\n";

?>

---- and ----

<?php

//class Foo {}

$foo = unserialize('O:3:"Foo":0:{}');

echo '$foo is_a Foo? '. (is_a($foo, 'Foo') ? 'yes' : 'no') ."\n";
echo '$foo instanceof Foo? '. ($foo instanceof Foo ? 'yes' : 'no') ."\n";

?>

Expected result:
----------------
$foo is_a Foo? yes
$foo instanceof Foo? yes

---- and ----

$foo is_a Foo? no
$foo instanceof Foo? no



Actual result:
--------------
$foo is_a Foo? yes
$foo instanceof Foo? yes

---- and ----

$foo is_a Foo? no

Fatal error: Class 'Foo' not found in 
/home/sean/phpdoc/scripts/tmp/is_a.php on line 8

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 [2004-08-19 01:28 UTC] helly@php.net
Can't reproduce:

marcus@frodo /usr/src/PHP_5_0 $ php -r 'function __autoload($name) { var_dump($name); } $x = NULL; var_dump($x instanceof test);'
make: `sapi/cli/php' is up to date.
string(4) "test"

Fatal error: Class 'test' not found in Command line code on line 1
marcus@frodo /usr/src/PHP_5_0 $ php -r 'function __autoload($name) { var_dump($name); eval("class $name {}");} $x = NULL; var_dump($x instanceof test);'
make: `sapi/cli/php' is up to date.
string(4) "test"
bool(false)

So the problem lies in unserialize() -> other bug
 [2004-08-19 02:40 UTC] hans at velum dot net
Well, no ... the problem that I am describing has nothing to do with unserialize().  That was just an example that Sean posted that illustrates how is_a() and instanceof differ.  I apologize if that wasn't clear.

You did reproduce the bug in your first example.

Simple reproduction:

<?php

$c = null;
print '$c instanceof PEAR_Error ? ' . ($c instanceof PEAR_Error);

?>

Will result in E_FATAL (no such class).  That's the problem.  is_a() has no such limitations, but is now deprecated.  This change suggestion/request is asking for a way to check whether a variable is an instance of a particular class/superclass/interface *without loading that class/interface*.

Hope that makes it clearer.

-Hans
 [2004-08-19 02:43 UTC] alan_k@php.net
The example was buggy, but the bug exists :)

php5 -r 'class Foo{} $f = unserialize("O:3:\"Foo\":0:{}"); var_dump(!($foo instanceof Bar));'

Bar could be a huge class, I dont want to load it just to check $f wasnt a instance of it?
 [2005-04-06 08:50 UTC] indeyets at gmail dot com
I'll try to summarize:

there is no easy way to check if class implements some interface. This is needed, when, for example, php-application has support for loading external classes.

external classes have to implement some interface. And check for this should happen BEFORE object creation. (for example, there might be a need for some specific constructor syntax).


PHP 5.0 allows to do the following things:
1). $parent = get_parent_class("SomeClassName"). This would be sufficient, if plugins _extend_ some base class. that's not our case - wouldn't work for interfaces
2). if ($obj instanceof "SomeInterfaceName") {}. This would work, if we could create object before the interface check. Wouldn't work for non-existen objects
3). reflection API. it can do the thing, but overhead (both in code and in resources) is too big
 [2006-04-03 14:01 UTC] tony2001@php.net
Fixed in PHP 5.1
 
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