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Bug #79525 Foreach converting/casting array keys to int
Submitted: 2020-04-26 21:31 UTC Modified: 2020-04-26 21:57 UTC
From: data dot protection dot gdpr at gmail dot com Assigned: cmb (profile)
Status: Not a bug Package: Arrays related
PHP Version: 7.3.17 OS: CentOS 6
Private report: No CVE-ID: None
View Developer Edit
 [2020-04-26 21:31 UTC] data dot protection dot gdpr at gmail dot com 
Description:
------------
I have an array with "numeric" key as string (e.g. '1'), intentionally, as semantically it makes sense for the context.

However, I noticed that using a foreach will convert the numeric string keys to "int", which then causes problems with strict comparisons, for example.

This does not seem like a good behavior, and I wonder if this should change.

Test script:
---------------
<?php

$array = array(
	'' => 'test',
	'1' => 'test1',
	'5' => 'test5',
	'2' => 'test2',
	'10' => 'test10'
);

foreach ($array as $key => $val) {
	var_dump($key);
}

Expected result:
----------------
string(0) ""
string(1) "1"
string(1) "5"
string(1) "2"
string(2) "10"

Actual result:
--------------
string(0) ""
int(1)
int(5)
int(2)
int(10)

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 [2020-04-26 21:43 UTC] bugreports at gmail dot com 
> I have an array with "numeric" key as string (e.g. '1')

you don't, you just think you do

php > var_dump([1=>'a', 2=>'b']);
array(2) {
  [1]=>
  string(1) "a"
  [2]=>
  string(1) "b"
}

php > var_dump(['1'=>'a', '2'=>'b']);
array(2) {
  [1]=>
  string(1) "a"
  [2]=>
  string(1) "b"
}
 [2020-04-26 21:45 UTC] cmb@php.net
-Status: Open +Status: Not a bug -Assigned To: +Assigned To: cmb
 [2020-04-26 21:45 UTC] cmb@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

Like bugreports@ said above.
 [2020-04-26 21:51 UTC] data dot protection dot gdpr at gmail dot com 
That really doesn't seem like a good behavior, and this can definitely lead to unexpected behavior.

In PHP, we have ways to do strict comparisons (in_array(.., .., true), ===),
and honestly, this key conversion kind of defeats the purpose.

I hope that a change to this will be considered in the future.

If I'm using quotes, I want a string, not an int... I thought this was common sense.
 [2020-04-26 21:56 UTC] bugreports at gmail dot com 
the problem is that it would be a *massive* and subtle BC break for millions line of code out there, anyways - you assumption that foreach is catsing or changing anything was wrong

and yes, i shoutet some dirty words into the room because of the always numeric kyes while working on 100% strict typed and strcit comparing codebase :-)
 [2020-04-26 21:57 UTC] cmb@php.net 
If you want this established behavior[1] to change, you or
somebody else would have to pursue the RFC process[2].

[1] <https://3v4l.org/p9dD5>
[2] <https://wiki.php.net/rfc/howto>
 
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