> On Sep 4, 2024, at 16:45, Rob Landers <rob@bottled.codes> wrote:
>
> I think, conceptually, this makes sense, but maybe I'm the only one who writes
>
> $arr = doSomething();
> $arr = array_map(fn($x) => $x->prop, $arr);
> $arr = array_filter($arr, $filterFunc);
>
> instead of
>
> $arr = array_filter(array_map(fn($x) => $x->prop, doSomething()),
> $filterFunc);
IMO, that's a failing of PHP not supporting object syntax (and reasonable api)
for non-object values. In other languages, I can write code such as:
let arr = doSomething()
.map { $0.prop }
.filter(filterFunc)
Which is more readable than both PHP versions.
> And I feel like having constant variables would result in more of the latter,
> which I feel is more unreadable. Though I do note that my opinion of what is
> readable might be different from other people's.
>
> That being said, I would much rather see block-scoped variables than local
> variables via let or var or something:
>
> var $aNumber = 12;
>
> foreach($arr as var $item) {
> echo $item; // item exists here
> }
>
> echo $item; // item doesn't exist here
>
> PHP is simply too verbose to really benefit from local constants, but would
> benefit from block-scope far more. For example, with local constants, you
> couldn't write that foreach because that variable exists in the scope of the
> function and can only be defined once.
>
> — Rob
I'd suggest that the foreach could be written with either of let/var to both
locally scope $item, which would explicitly disallow/allow $item to be changed
while in the loop.
Another benefit of local constants is preventing accidentally reusing a prior
variable. For example, if I set a temporary variable to something, and then
later in the function, reuse that same name for a new temporary but don't set
the value on all flow paths, then the value from earlier in the function leaks
through, whereas either using a constant, or a second explicit variable
definition would have exposed and/or prevented the issue.
-John
