[PHP-DEV] Range literal (proposal) From: Anders Johannsen (anders <email protected>)
Date: 09/03/01

It would be nice addition to have a Range literal in PHP. The "range()"
implements the functionality in part, but in an extremly ineffecient
manner. What I would like to see, is a builtin Range 'type', which only
holds the start and end points.

Let's consider some practical applications:

        1:
        $str = "this is a test string";
        $str[0...4] #=> "this"
        
        2:
        $arr = ['this', 'is', 'a', 'test']
        $arr[2..4] #=> ['is', 'a']

        3:
        $str = "hello world";
        $offset = 6;
        $end = 11;
        
        substr($str, $offset...$end); #=> "world"

        4:
        foreach ('a'..'d' as $chr) {
                print $chr;
        }
                # Prints a,b,c

        5:
        $range = 5...10;
        
        range_first($range); #=> 5
        range_last($range); #=> 10
        range_size($range); #=> 6

        6:
        $range = range(0, 3);
        
        for ($i = 0; $i == $range; $++) {
                print $i;
        }

                # Prints 0, 1, 2, 3

        $i = 0;
        while ($i == $range) {
                print $i++;
        }

                # Prints 0, 1, 2, 3

An implementation of my suggestion would obviously require some work
(hacking?) inside the Zend Engine, which, I believe, is best left up to
people with a understanding of its internals (which rules me out).

Let me know what you think.

Btw: Is there a PHP mechanism for language improvement suggestions (such as
Perl's RFC or Ruby's RCR)?

/A 

--
Anders Johannsen, Denmark

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