ID:               49510
 User updated by:  m dot kurzyna at crystalpoint dot pl
 Reported By:      m dot kurzyna at crystalpoint dot pl
 Status:           Assigned
 Bug Type:         Filter related
 Operating System: Linux
 PHP Version:      5.3.0
 Assigned To:      pajoye
 New Comment:

As much as i'd like to have empty string be invalid false cast i have
to disagree with you for consistency reasons.

If (boolean)'' == false then filter_var('','boolean') should also
return false. Both in general and in case of FILTER_NULL_ON_FAILURE
(just like the documentation states).

Also, because i can't stress it enough, this is a VALIDATOR not a
SANITIZER so using it as a strict caster is secondary to it's validation
purpose and as such it currently fails both on implied and explicit
behavior.

The ideal solution would be to have FILTER_VALIDATE_BOOLEAN roughly
equal to current behavior with FILTER_NULL_ON_FAILURE and a *seperate*
FILTER_SANITIZE_BOOLEAN similar to current behavior w/o the null failure
flag. This however probably is impossible due to BC.


Previous Comments:
------------------------------------------------------------------------

[2009-09-10 11:09:43] sjo...@php.net

I agree that filter_var() should return null for the empty string. I
think that this usage of filter_var() is meant to convert string
representations of booleans to boolean values. That is, "true", "on",
"1", "false", "off" and "0" should be converted, other strings should
return null.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

[2009-09-10 09:05:53] m dot kurzyna at crystalpoint dot pl

Personally i think it's just fine (empty string ain't false - if
anything it's null) but in PHP world it is (both on PHP and C levels):

(string)false = ''
(boolean)'' == false

Z_STRLEN_P(value) = 0


Oh, and there is this little documentation thingy you like to cite from
time to time:

If FILTER_NULL_ON_FAILURE is set, FALSE is returned only for "0",
"false", "off", "no", and "", and NULL is returned for all non-boolean
values.

where empty string is explicitly stated as being false.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

[2009-09-10 08:57:29] sjo...@php.net

Why do you think it is wrong that it returns null for an empty string?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

[2009-09-10 08:53:11] m dot kurzyna at crystalpoint dot pl

Actually it is broken even more then i initially reported because it
also returns NULL for empty string:

filter_var('',FILTER_VALIDATE_BOOLEAN,array('flags'=>FILTER_NULL_ON_FAILURE))
      // got NULL, expected false


The problem is in ext/filter/logical_filters.c(233) - the check is done
by using string representation of zval being checked. For false value
it's an empty string and the switch from line 244 doesn't cover this
case (hence same result for false and empty string).

Something along the lines of following patch should fix the problem: 

--- logical_filters.c   2009-06-10 21:01:17.000000000 +0200
+++ logical_filters.fixed.c     2009-09-10 10:48:59.953675880 +0200
@@ -242,6 +242,10 @@
         * returns false for "0", "false", "off", "no", and ""
         * null otherwise. */
        switch (len) {
+               case 0:
+                               ret = 0;
+                       break;
+
                case 1:
                        if (*str == '1') {
                                ret = 1;





On the side note: i was always wondering why (string)false == '' and
not '0'?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

[2009-09-09 23:00:32] paj...@php.net

This case sounds wrong:

filter_var(false,FILTER_VALIDATE_BOOLEAN,array('flags'=>FILTER_NULL_ON_FAILURE)),
     // got NULL, expected false

I have to check back the code, but this case does not make sense to me.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The remainder of the comments for this report are too long. To view
the rest of the comments, please view the bug report online at
    http://bugs.php.net/49510

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Edit this bug report at http://bugs.php.net/?id=49510&edit=1

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