Hi, This proposal is for the often called line like this: $var = isset($_GET['var']) ? $_GET['var'] : '';
Only a shorter and imho a cleaner solution to get the same: $var = varset($_GET['var']); The implementation for this in PHP code is this: # Arg 1 = the variable to check for existence # Arg 2 = the default return value which is an empty string by default function varset($var, $default = '') { return (isset($var) ? $var : $default); } However there is a slight issue with this approach. If notices are turned on this code will generate a notice while i think it should not do that. But perhaps this approach is "to short". A slightly different implementation (and longer) prevents the notice: # Arg 1 = the array in which a given key should be checked for existence # Arg 2 = the key to check in the array from arg 1 # Arg 3 = the default return value which is an empty string by default function varset($arr, $key, $default = '') { return (isset($arr[$key]) ? $arr[$key] : $default); } where the call would be: $var = varset($_GET, 'var'); I personally like both ways... My proposal is to make this function a core php function in PHP 5.4. The added benifit is obvious. People can, with this, use a way shorter notation to validate if a given array element exists. Right now that needs to be done with a ternary, filter_var or some other method (there are quite a few ways to check for existence). I tried to look in the PHP source to see if i could make a patch to add this but i couldn't find the function that defines the isset function (i wanted to base it on that). So a pointer to the right location would be nice (along with docs that tell me what i all need to do to implement a new php function). If someone else wants to make the implementation, please be my guest :) So, what do you think of this? Regards, Mark