Isn't it a mistake to give a start position at the end or beyond the string? In this case, doesn't it make sense to return false?
Andi
At 02:39 PM 11/19/2003 +0100, Morten Poulsen wrote:
Hi,
Even though this is documented, it is strange behaviour: If the from parameter to substr() is at, or past, the end of the input string, the function returns false.
The function is documented as string substr ( string string, int start [, int length])
IMHO substr() should either
1) be changed to do like Perl, which returns an error only if start is _beyond_ the end (not _at_): (from http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/func/substr.html) my $null = substr $name, 6, 2; # returns '' (no warning) my $oops = substr $name, 7; # returns undef, with warning
2) be changed to return an empty string, if start is either at or beyond the end of the input string.
I have attached patches for both solutions.
If you don't change it to be like Perl, I think it should be noted in the documentation (as with chop()). If, on the other hand, it _is_ changed to behave like Perl, I think it should be emphasized that you are not guaranteed that the result is a string, because this will cause (eg. has caused us) problems when using the result as part of the $data array to PEAR DB::execute().
Happy hacking, Morten
-- Morten Poulsen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.afdelingp.dk/
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