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Request #44585 htmlentities returns empty string when operation on a null value
Submitted: 2008-04-01 03:14 UTC Modified: 2020-01-05 11:14 UTC
Votes:28
Avg. Score:3.1 ± 0.4
Reproduced:2 of 4 (50.0%)
Same Version:1 (50.0%)
Same OS:0 (0.0%)
From: eran at octabox dot com Assigned:
Status: Suspended Package: Strings related
PHP Version: 5.2.5 OS: Windows XP Professional SP2
Private report: No CVE-ID: None
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 [2008-04-01 03:14 UTC] eran at octabox dot com
Description:
------------
The htmlentities function returns an empty string when used on a null value. This might seem irrelevant, however the htmlentities is used regularly to escape data before using it in a database query. A null value might be needed in such queries, and it would be preferred if it does not need to be considered a special case if a part of an data escaping routine.

For example, the Zend_Filter_Input component of the Zend_Framework uses htmlentities as the default escape filter. Passing null values in an escape routing would result in null values erroneously being converted to empty strings. 

Reproduce code:
---------------
var_dump(htmlentities(null));

Expected result:
----------------
NULL

Actual result:
--------------
string(0) ""

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History

AllCommentsChangesGit/SVN commitsRelated reports
 [2016-12-31 00:19 UTC] cmb@php.net
-Package: Feature/Change Request +Package: Strings related
 [2020-01-05 11:14 UTC] cmb@php.net
-Status: Open +Status: Suspended
 [2020-01-05 11:14 UTC] cmb@php.net
htmlentities() expects a string as first argument, and due to
PHP's type juggling a NULL is converted to an empty string.  If
you want to have that changed, please pursue the RFC process[1].

[1] <https://wiki.php.net/rfc/howto>
 
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