[PHP-INTERNALS] Constant arrays

On Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 8:20 PM, Barbu Paul Gh. wrote:
Hello!

I wonder why I cannot assign arrays to constants.
According to the PHP manual:
"only scalar and null values are allowed. Scalar values are integer, float,
string or boolean values."

What is the mechanism behind this?
What's the explanation?

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On 19/12/11 21:23, Paul Dragoonis wrote:
Barbu,

This is how constants work in all viable languages such as C/++.

2011/12/19 Ángel González <[email protected]>:
I disagree. In C you can have:
const data foo[] = { { "Data1", 2 }, { "Data2", 78 } };

It's not unusual in php to have a complex structure that won't change
in a variable. It should be an array, but as array is not allowed as
content,
you need to leave it as a static variable that you won't never change.

Hi Barbu:

I wonder why I cannot assign arrays to constants.

Hi Barbu:
Do keep in mind that you can serialize() the array before storing it in
a constant.  Then use unserialize(CONSTANT) when you need the data.

--Dan

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On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 1:28 AM, Qiang Guo wrote:


Yes, I am wondering too. For mechanism you can refer to the source code,
and can someone explain why we cannot have constant arrays ?

Qiang


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On 12/21/2011 03:37 AM, jpauli wrote:
I guess constant array would mean that all the variables inside the array
dimensions should not change.
Just saying that, is a nonsense.

If a constant could be an array, then that array could not contain
variables, if not it wouldn't be constant any more as a change to one
variable inside it would change its own meaning value.

Julien.P

On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 11:43 PM, David Muir wrote:
A constant can only contain static values. There was no mention of
variables.

Isn't a "constant" array basically the same as an Enum?

David