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Doc Bug #54549 Using $variable--; and $variable -= '1'; yield different results.
Submitted: 2011-04-17 14:03 UTC Modified: 2011-04-26 21:30 UTC
Votes:3
Avg. Score:1.0 ± 0.0
Reproduced:0 of 3 (0.0%)
From: account22a23 at hotmail dot com Assigned: salathe (profile)
Status: Closed Package: *Programming Data Structures
PHP Version: 5.3.6 OS: Fedora 14
Private report: No CVE-ID: None
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From: account22a23 at hotmail dot com
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 [2011-04-17 14:03 UTC] account22a23 at hotmail dot com
Description:
------------
While the code below may have other problems, the simple fact of the matter is that when I uncomment "$int--;" and comment "$int -= '1';" the code will loop for at least a minute, but when it is left as is below it does not and will terminate as expected.  Since I've been told the two pieces of code have the exact same logic, I have no explaination for this.  Please contact me if you know why.  The php package was installed using 'yum install php php-mysql' on fedora 14.




Test script:
---------------
<?php
function GeneratePassword($int, $string){
	$new_string = '';
	while ($int >= 0){
		$new_string += $string[rand(0, (strlen($string) - 1))];
		//$int--;
		$int -= '1';
		echo 'round';
		echo 'dump of int: ' . var_dump($int);
		echo 'dump of string: ' . var_dump($string);
		echo 'dump of new_string: ' . var_dump($new_string);
		
	}
	return ($new_string);
}

fwrite(STDOUT, "Choose an int");
$int = fgets(STDIN);
fwrite(STDOUT, "Choose a string");
$string = fgets(STDIN);
$pass = GeneratePassword($int, $string);
echo 'anything';
echo $pass;
?>

Actual result:
--------------
CASE 1 USING:
//$int--;
$int -= '1';
------------------------------------------------------

php -f delete_me2.php
Choose an int2
Choose a stringbb
roundint(1)
dump of int: string(3) "bb
"
dump of string: int(0)
dump of new_string: roundint(0)
dump of int: string(3) "bb
"
dump of string: int(0)
dump of new_string: roundint(-1)
dump of int: string(3) "bb
"
dump of string: int(0)
dump of new_string: anything0


CASE 2 USING:
$int--;
//$int -= '1';
------------------------------------------------------

php -f delete_me2.php
Choose an int2
Choose a stringbb
roundstring(2) "2
"
dump of int: string(3) "bb
"
dump of string: string(0) ""
dump of new_string: roundstring(2) "2
"
dump of int: string(3) "bb
"
dump of string: string(0) ""
dump of new_string: roundstring(2) "2
"
dump of int: string(3) "bb
"
dump of string: string(0) ""
dump of new_string: roundstring(2) "2
"
dump of int: string(3) "bb
"
dump of string: string(0) ""
dump of new_string: roundstring(2) "2
"
dump of int: string(3) "bb
"
dump of string: string(0) ""
dump of new_string: roundstring(2) "2
"
dump of int: string(3) "bb
"
dump of string: string(0) ""
dump of new_string: roundstring(2) "2
"
dump of int: string(3) "bb
"
dump of string: string(0) ""
dump of new_string: roundstring(2) "2
"
dump of int: string(3) "bb
"
dump of string: string(0) ""
dump of new_string: roundstring(2) "2
"
dump of int: string(3) "bb
"
dump of string: string(0) ""
dump of new_string: roundstring(2) "2
"
dump of int: string(3) "bb
"
dump of string: string(0) ""
dump of new_string: roundstring(2) "2
"
dump of int: string(3) "bb
"
dump of string: string(0) ""
dump of new_string: roundstring(2) "2
"

... (loops for at least 60 seconds) ...

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 [2011-04-17 14:19 UTC] hotmail22a23 at hotmail dot com
Code was run from command line.
 [2011-04-17 14:20 UTC] account22a23 at hotmail dot com
Code was run from command line.
 [2011-04-17 15:05 UTC] cataphract@php.net
-Type: Bug +Type: Documentation Problem
 [2011-04-17 15:05 UTC] cataphract@php.net
The post decrement operator has no effect on non-numeric strings. Your $int variable is not == "2"; its value is actually "2\n" (with a line break on the end), so you get no effect, as in:

<?php
$a = $b = "2\n";
$a--;
var_dump($a === $b); //bool(true)

Using $a -= '1'; works because this operation is more permissive on the first operand and takes "2\n" as if it were 2: decrement_function calls is_numeric_string with allow_errors=0 and sub_function with allow_errors=1.

This should be documented.

Also, you might want to use:
echo 'dump of int: ', var_dump($int)
instead of
echo 'dump of int: ' . var_dump($int)
because var_dump has side effects and by using ".", you're forcing it to be evaluated before anything is echoed.
 [2011-04-26 21:29 UTC] salathe@php.net
Automatic comment from SVN on behalf of salathe
Revision: http://svn.php.net/viewvc/?view=revision&amp;revision=310528
Log: decrementing, or incrementing non-A-Za-z, string variables has no effect (doc #54549)
 [2011-04-26 21:30 UTC] salathe@php.net
-Status: Open +Status: Closed -Assigned To: +Assigned To: salathe
 [2011-04-26 21:30 UTC] salathe@php.net
This bug has been fixed in SVN.

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