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Bug #41690 Decrementing null is null
Submitted: 2007-06-14 14:31 UTC Modified: 2007-06-25 18:46 UTC
From: ian at ithomas dot name Assigned:
Status: Not a bug Package: Math related
PHP Version: 5.2.3 OS: Gentoo
Private report: No CVE-ID: None
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 [2007-06-14 14:31 UTC] ian at ithomas dot name
Description:
------------
Incrementing null is 1.
Decrementing null is null!

I'm not sure which is the correct behaviour, but they should at least be consistent.


I saw this on PHP 4.4.4 but have since duplicated it on 5.2.3. It was a problem for me because I had a "for ($i = null; $i > 0; $i--)" which results in an infinite loop (but would work fine if $i++ was used instead).


Reproduce code:
---------------
<?php
echo '$i++: ';
$i = null;
var_dump($i);
$i++;
var_dump($i);

echo '<br> <br> <br> $i--: ';
$i = null;
var_dump($i);
$i--;
var_dump($i);

echo '<br> <br> <br> $i - 1: ';
$i = null;
var_dump($i);
$i = $i - 1;
var_dump($i);
?>

Expected result:
----------------
null-- should be 1, so script should output:

$i++: NULL int(1)


$i--: NULL int(-1)


$i - 1: NULL int(-1) 

Actual result:
--------------
null-- is null, script output is:


$i++: NULL int(1)


$i--: NULL NULL


$i - 1: NULL int(-1) 

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 [2007-06-14 15:39 UTC] johannes@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

.
 [2007-06-14 15:46 UTC] ian at ithomas dot name
Thanks for your response. Since filing this I've found http://uk2.php.net/manual/en/language.operators.increment.php which states:

"Decrementing NULL values has no effect too, but incrementing them results in 1."

but with no further explanation. I assume it is because this behaviour is documented that you are saying that this is not a bug.


This behaviour is counter-intuitive, so unless there is a good reason for it (which should be mentioned in the documentation) it remains a bug. Documenting a bug doesn't fix it!
 [2007-06-16 12:54 UTC] ian at ithomas dot name
Sorry, forgot to reopen it. See comment above for why.
 [2007-06-25 18:46 UTC] tony2001@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


 
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