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Doc Bug #65792 Incomplete return values
Submitted: 2013-09-30 20:18 UTC Modified: 2013-10-01 18:22 UTC
From: chris at unix-ninja dot com Assigned:
Status: Wont fix Package: Documentation problem
PHP Version: 5.5.4 OS:
Private report: No CVE-ID: None
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 [2013-09-30 20:18 UTC] chris at unix-ninja dot com
Description:
------------
---
From manual page: http://www.php.net/function.strcmp#refsect1-function.strcmp-
returnvalues
---

The documentation does not specify that strcmp() returns NULL on error. This is 
important as it could be incorrectly evaluated as a successful result if using 
simple evaluation.

For completeness, the return value of NULL on error should be mentioned in the 
documentation.

Test script:
---------------
@ $ans == strcmp(array(), $string);


$ans now equals a successful hit. (which is wrong, but expected behaviour)


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 [2013-10-01 17:26 UTC] aharvey@php.net
-Status: Open +Status: Wont fix
 [2013-10-01 17:26 UTC] aharvey@php.net
This is documented at http://php.net/manual/en/functions.internal.php — it's been 
previously decided not to include this on each function page.
 [2013-10-01 18:08 UTC] chris at unix-ninja dot com
Unfortunately, the documentation on that page specifically states:
"In this case it will likely return NULL but this is just a convention, and 
cannot be relied upon."

I believe it would be beneficial for the individual page to explicitly mention 
the return on failure code (as many other pages do) to be more concise. Some 
users may not have seen the Internal built-in functions page, and may have 
missed valuable information. Even if one had read that page, the page itself 
states that it remains an unreliable source of information for the return code.
 [2013-10-01 18:22 UTC] aharvey@php.net
In theory, I agree with you, but the main reason for not doing this is a lack of 
resources — nobody on the documentation team has the time to audit each function 
for this (it comes down to whether the function internally uses 
zend_parse_parameters(), which most — but not all — do), and it would be just as 
bad to blanket document this and be wrong about the functions that don't use zpp.

It sucks, but that's kind of where we're at. Sorry.
 
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