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Coerce

Functions for coercing values to various data types

This library contains functions which takes an input value of any type, and attempt to 'coerce' it into an output value of a particular type, in a way that people would expect (following the principle of least astonishment). If the conversion is not possible, or if there is any ambiguity about how the conversion should be done, then the coercion will fail.

For example, the floating point number 2.0, can be coerced to the integer 2, because 2.0 is just another way of expressing the number 2. Whereas attempting to coerce the floating point number 2.1 to an integer will fail. In particular we don't try to guess whether some kind of rounding should be attempted, or which direction to round. The input 2.1 does not represent an integer and that's that.

There are 4 functions for each target data type, which differ in handling of null inputs and the way that failed coercions are handled.

Version 1

Coerce::toString($input, &$output): bool
Coerce::toInt($input, &$output): bool
Coerce::toFloat($input, &$output): bool
Coerce::toArrayKey($input, &$output): bool
Coerce::toBool($input, &$output): bool

In this version, the return value is a boolean indicating whether or not the coercion was successful (with the coerced value being stored in the $output parameter.

This version will be more useful when the input data comes from an untrusted source and therefore failed coercions are expected, and the code should always handle the failure gracefully.

The first parameter $input is passed by value, and contains the value (of any type) which will be coerced. The second parameter $output is passed by reference - if coercion is possible, the result of the coercion will be populated into $output. Depending on the target type, other additional parameters may be accepted - see notes on specific functions below.

The return value of the function is a boolean, true if the coercion was possible, false otherwise. If the function returns false then the value of $output should be considered invalid and ignored.

Version 2

Coerce::toStringOrFail($input): string
Coerce::toIntOrFail($input): int
Coerce::toFloatOrFail($input): float
Coerce::toArrayKeyOrFail($input): int|string
Coerce::toBoolOrFail($input): bool

In this version, the coerced value is the return value from the function, and if coercion failed then an InvalidArgumentException will be thrown.

This version will be more useful when the input data comes from a trusted source, and therefore the coercion should normally be expected to succeed, with failure being an exceptional event which may indicate a bug elsewhere in the code.

Version 3

Coerce::toStringOrNull($input, &$output): bool
Coerce::toIntOrNull($input, &$output): bool
Coerce::toFloatOrNull($input, &$output): bool
Coerce::toArrayKeyOrNull($input, &$output): bool
Coerce::toBoolOrNull($input, &$output): bool

This version is the same as version 1, except that null values are also accepted. So if the input is null or an empty string, the output will also be null, and the function will return true.

Version 4

Coerce::toStringOrNullOrFail($input): string|null
Coerce::toIntOrNullOrFail($input): int|null
Coerce::toFloatOrNullOrFail($input): float|null
Coerce::toArrayKeyOrNullOrFail($input): int|string|null
Coerce::toBoolOrNullOrFail($input): bool|null

This version is the same as version 3, except that null values are also accepted. So if the input is null or an empty string, the function will return null.

Examples

Form validation, where user input in $_POST cannot be trusted

Boolean value which has to be stored in a string database field

Functions

Coerce::toString($input, &$output, bool $reject_bool = false)

Coerce a value to a string.

• A null value is coerced to the empty string (unless using toStringOrNull in which case it will coerce to NULL).
• Boolean values are coerced to strings 'true' or 'false' (unless $reject_bool=true)
• Integers and floats are coerced to their standard string representation.
• No attempt is made to coerce array inputs to a string - the function will return false.
• Objects will be coerced if and only if, they have a defined __toString() method, IE the creator of the class has a specific string representation in mind and explicitly defined.

Coerce::toInt($input, &$output, bool $reject_bool = false, bool $round_floats = false, bool $reject_negative = false, bool $reject_zero = false)

Coerce a value to an integer.

• Null values will not be coerced - the function will return false (unless using toIntOrNull).
• Arrays and objects will not be coerced - the function will return false.
• Boolean true will be coerced to 1, and false to 0 (unless $reject_bool=true).
• If the input value is the float or string representation of an integer, then the value will be coerced. For example the float 4.0, the string '4.0' or the string '4' would all be coerced to the integer 4.
• Numeric strings or floats which are not integers will fail coercion, unless $round_floats=true, in which case the coerced value will be the nearest integer
• If the optional $reject_negative flag is set, then negative numbers will fail coercion
• If the optional $reject_zero flag is set, then zero numbers will fail coercion

Coerce::toFloat($input, &$output, bool $reject_bool = false)

Coerce a value to a float.

• Null values will not be coerced - the function will return false (unless using toFloatOrNull).
• Arrays and objects will not be coerced - the function will return false.
• Boolean true will be coerced to 1.0, and false to 0.0 (unless $reject_bool=true).
• Numeric strings will be coerced to their float values.
• If the input is technically of float type, but is non-finite (eg NAN or INF), then the value will not be coerced and the function will return false.

Coerce::toArrayKey($input, &$output)

Coerce a value to type suitable for use as a key in a PHP array (string or int).

• Null values will not be coerced - the function will return false (unless using toArrayKeyOrNull).
• Arrays and objects will not be coerced - the function will return false.
• Boolean values will not be coerced, due to an ambiguity whether to use a string ('true', 'false') or an integer (1, 0) as the key.
• Strings or floats representing an integer will be coerced to integer.
• Floats representing non-integer values will be converted to strings for use as an array key.
• Integers or any string which does not represent an integer will be returned unmodified for use an an array key.

Coerce::toBool($input, &$output)

Coerce a value to a boolean.

• Null values will not be coerced - the function will return false (unless using toBoolOrNull)..
• Arrays and objects will not be coerced - the function will return false.
• A numeric value (int or float) exactly equal to zero is coerced to boolean false.
• A numeric value (int or float) exactly equal to one is coerced to boolean true.
• All other numeric values will not be coerced - the function will return false.
• The following strings (case-insensitive) will be coerced to boolean true: '1' 'true' 't' 'yes' 'y' 'on'.
• The following strings (case-insensitive) will be coerced to boolean false: '0' 'false' 'f' 'no' 'n' 'off'.
• All other string values will not be coerced - the function will return false.