Proposal: Dump circular references in var_export() using IIFE
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Extension: standard
Feature
Status: Needs Triage
- Dominant language
- C
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Description
When having $a = array(&$a) and calling var_export($a), instead of getting
PHP Warning: var_export does not handle circular references in php shell code on line 1
array (
0 => NULL,
)
we could make it return an IIFE like ((function(){$a = array(&$a);return $a;})()) so we can declare that circular reference using a variable without the risk to change variables in the code where the output of var_export() will be used.
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start by reproducing the circular-reference example with var_export() and inspect its implementation and existing tests for circular references. Done means var_export() can represent the self-reference using the proposed IIFE form without the warning or loss of the reference.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- php
- Domain
- backend
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 30/100