Arrays: concatenation operator .= vs =

[StevenOliver]

Is there a subtle difference between
$array[] = 'item';
vs
$array[] .= 'item';

Thank you.

[mac_gyver]

since the $array[] syntax always appends a new element to the array, it won't contain anything to concatenate to, so, the use of the . has no meaning and is probably producing a php undefined error. what sort of error, symptom, or problem are you having that causes you to ask this?

[StevenOliver]

Thank you!!
I saw an answer on the net using $array[] .= and I had never seen the concatenation operator used with arrays (the answer had lots of upvotes, too), so I thought I'd look into it further before changing my own code :-)

Edited April 14, 2019 by StevenOliver

[Barand]

It would only make sense if the "[ ]" contained a key value.

$array = [ 'First', 'Second', 'Third'];
$array[0] .= " item";                      // now you can use the concatenation operator

echo '<pre>', print_r($array, 1), '</pre>';
 /* OUTPUTS
         Array
        (
            [0] => First item
            [1] => Second
            [2] => Third
        )
*/

However,

$array[] .= " item";        // surprisingly it works!

 

[benanamen]

Just a reminder, in PHP 7 with strict_types, the second parameter of print_r MUST be a boolean and not an integer or it will fail with a fatal error.

Correct

<?php declare(strict_types=1); 
echo '<pre>', print_r($array, true), '</pre>';  

Fails Fatal Error

<?php declare(strict_types=1); 
echo '<pre>', print_r($array, 1), '</pre>';  

Fatal error: Uncaught TypeError: print_r() expects parameter 2 to be boolean, integer given
TypeError: print_r() expects parameter 2 to be boolean, integer given 

 

Quote

surprisingly it works!

It does "work" but it will give you an Undefined variable notice. It doesn't matter if it is an array or not.

Edited April 14, 2019 by benanamen

[Barand]

Does anyone else find it ironic that you can't

declare(strict_types=true);

 

[requinix]

47 minutes ago, Barand said:

Does anyone else find it ironic that you can't

declare(strict_types=true);

 

According to Andrea (the original author of the scalar type hints RFC where strict_types came from),

Quote

I originally had it be a boolean, but considering how often this would be used, I changed it to 1 for terseness. Using 1 is common for INI settings, so I don’t think it’d be that confusing,

Shrug.

[Barand]

14 minutes ago, requinix said:

but considering how often this would be used

... or how little?

[requinix]

18 minutes ago, Barand said:

... or how little?

Either you use it everywhere or you don't use it at all. I'm in the latter camp: I like the automatic conversions, and I'm already aware of and careful with value types.

I would probably opt-in if I could do it globally, but there were good reasons not to support that and to only make it per-file.

[benanamen]

5 hours ago, Barand said:

Does anyone else find it ironic that you can't

declare(strict_types=true);

 

Well..., if that isn't a "how about that" LOL. I get the explanation by Andrea, but still.......