Type cast rules in handbook incomplete - missing (double), (unset), (binary) documentation #154

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1. jrfnl commented on Oct 24, 2025

   

   jrfnl

   on Oct 24, 2025

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   (unset) doesn't exist in PHP anymore and (binary) is deprecated as of PHP 8.5. Let's not give people any ideas please.
2. jrfnl commented on Oct 24, 2025

   

   jrfnl

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   Oh and for the record, (real) was deprecated in PHP 7.4 and removed in PHP 8.0 and (double) is deprecated per PHP 8.5 and will be removed in PHP 9.0.

   Basically the sniff already anticipated the direction PHP would go into and I don't think educating people about PHP features which are deprecated/removed is helpful in a coding style guide.

   👍React with 👍1Reacted by Denis Žoljom
3. jrfnl commented on Oct 24, 2025

   

   jrfnl

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   If anything, we should simplify the text once PHP 9.0 is released to remove the mention of anything but the remaining canonical casts.
4. GaryJones commented on Oct 27, 2025

   

   GaryJones

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   I don't think educating people about PHP features which are deprecated

   I think I disagree here. If I'm a regular developer, writing plugins for PHP ~8.2, and am not fully aware of what changes there are coming in 8.5, then it would be very handy for a coding standard I'm following to point out that I shouldn't use X because a future / later version of PHP has it deprecated or removed, so I don't introduce it now and have to fix it again later.

   I don't believe a section of type casts people shouldn't use (where not already removed before the lowest supported PHP version for WP) would have any disadvantages. It's not giving people ideas - it's bringing clarity to what should or shouldn't be used.
5. rodrigoprimo commented on Oct 27, 2025

   

   rodrigoprimo

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   Thanks for the feedback, @jrfnl. I don't have the historical context of what goes into the handbook, so I may be missing something here. That being said, I agree with @GaryJones that it makes sense to document in the handbook what type casts shouldn't be used when they're still available in PHP versions WordPress supports.
6. jrfnl commented on Oct 27, 2025

   

   jrfnl

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   I fundamentally disagree. A coding standards guide should be about coding standards, not about how to write PHP cross-version compatible code. That's what the PHP migration guides are for (and in the past the blog posts I contributed to for Make about new PHP versions).

   If you look at the text of the guide as it is now, for the most part, the text is written to specify how code should be written, not how it should not be written (with only a few exceptions).
   In the examples, correct and incorrect is shown at times, but the "incorrect" is rarely made explicit in the textual part.

   As for PHP information: for PHP features not available in the oldest WP supported PHP version we do provide guidelines and include a warning about (not) using these features for WP Core, but there are only two places where we mention PHP deprecations (type casts + create_function) and, to be honest, for type casts this should be removed in my opinion as there was never any reason not to use the non-canonical type casts in the first place.

   As for create_function - the mention of deprecation here is historical as prior to PHP 5.3, closures didn't exist and people often used create_function for quick & dirty hook-ins to WP. Considering it is also a security risk, I'm okay with leaving that mention in place until the minimum PHP version of WP has been raised to PHP 8.0, by which point mentioning create_function becomes redundant.

   So, for the type cast section, I would propose to update the text to:

   - [Type casts](https://www.php.net/manual/en/language.types.type-juggling.php#language.types.typecasting) must be lowercase. Always prefer the short form of type casts, (int) instead of (integer) and (bool) rather than (boolean). For float casts use (float), not (real) which is [deprecated](https://www.php.net/manual/en/migration74.deprecated.php#migration74.deprecated.core.real) in PHP 7.4, and removed in PHP 8:
   + [Type casts](https://www.php.net/manual/en/language.types.type-juggling.php#language.types.typecasting) must be lowercase. Always prefer the short, canonical form of type casts, (int) instead of (integer) and (bool) rather than (boolean). For float casts use (float).

   If you like, we could update the example code like so:

   - foreach ( (array) $foo as $bar ) { ...
   - 
   - $foo = (bool) $bar;
   + $foo = (bool) $bar; // Correct
   + $foo = (boolean) $bar; // Incorrect.

   Adding information about deprecated PHP features to the coding standards guidelines would open the flood gates to adding PHPCompatibility sniffs to WPCS, which I don't think is the right move.

   👍React with 👍2Reacted by Gary Jones and Rodrigo Primo
7. rodrigoprimo commented on Oct 28, 2025

   

   rodrigoprimo

   on Oct 28, 2025

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   Thanks for the additional context and information, @jrfnl. I agree with your suggestion both for updating the text and the code example. I see that @GaryJones agrees as well. Could you create a PR or do you prefer that I do it (giving you the credits)?
8. jrfnl commented on Oct 28, 2025

   

   jrfnl

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   @rodrigoprimo Feel free to PR this.
9. dingo-d

   closed this as completedin #155on Oct 30, 2025