README

When migrating to PHP 7.2 there is a big incompatible change with the count() function.

The new count() function works only on countable variables (array or object which implements Countable).

In the past, that was weird but you could count integer, booleans, etc ...

The previous php 7.2 behaviour for non-countable argument was :

count(<string>) = 1
count(<integer>) = 1
count(<boolean>) = 1
count(<float>) = 1
count(<object>) = 1
count(null) = 0

When to use it

Legacy code you need to migrate fast to Php 7.2 (you don't have days or more to go fix all the code while risking bugs)
Legacy dependencies unmaintened from years your project still need and you don't want/have the time to fork them to fix count()
You admit the tool won't cover 100% use cases (see further) and you will probaby have a few fixes to do manually

Realistically

I used this "fix" on a 1M lines legacy project with thousands of count calls without any problem. With vendors it grew to 2.5M of lines and more than 13k files. The analysis take on average 500+ files/sec and 100k+ lines/sec
It took me later more than one week of full time to migrate manually each "count" in the project, but I keep the fixer in the project because of legacy dependencies unmaintened for several years.
In reality, nobody wanted to use count on integers, string or else, but arrays coming from various sources (like dbs) produced sometime a null and it triggered E_WARNING. That was more frequent than what we wanted.

The "trick" to "fix" count

Declare a count() function which brings back the old behaviour for each namespace where the fixer detected a use

Use cases unfixable

You called count() everywhere with the backslash: \count()
You have calls to count() into evaluated strings (eval() evil)
You already overrided count() in namespaces
Calls to count() in non namespaced classes
Other things I cannot imagine ...

How to use it

In your composer.json :

"require": {
    "arnapou/php72fixcount": "^1.0"
},
"scripts": {
    "post-autoload-dump": [
        "@php vendor/bin/php72-fix-count.php --quiet generate src vendor"
    ]
}

Usage of php72-fix-count.php :

PHP 7.2 FIX COUNT

DESCRIPTION
    This command generate php files which are loaded by composer
    in order to fix/hack the breaking change of the count/sizeof
    breaking change for php 7.2+

SYSNOPSIS
    php php72-fix-count.php [OPTION] COMMAND DIRECTORY...

OPTION
    --quiet    silent mode (usefull for composer post-autoload-dump)

COMMAND
    generate   generate the fixes
    search     search the fixes (same as generate but no write)
    clean      remove the fixes

EXAMPLES
    php php72-fix-count.php --quiet generate src vendor
    php php72-fix-count.php clean

You must add all directories in the same command line because each script execution will override the generated fix, DON'T do that :

"scripts": {
    "post-autoload-dump": [
        "@php vendor/bin/php72-fix-count.php --quiet generate src ",             |  DOES NOT
        "@php vendor/bin/php72-fix-count.php --quiet generate vendor"            |  WORK !!!
    ]
}

Annexe from php.net

This is a copy-paste from this link from php.net

An E_WARNING will now be emitted when attempting to count() non-countable types (this includes the sizeof() alias function).

<?php

var_dump(
    count(null), // NULL is not countable
    count(1), // integers are not countable
    count('abc'), // strings are not countable
    count(new stdclass), // objects not implementing the Countable interface are not countable
    count([1,2]) // arrays are countable
);

The above example will output:

Warning: count(): Parameter must be an array or an object that implements Countable in %s on line %d

Warning: count(): Parameter must be an array or an object that implements Countable in %s on line %d

Warning: count(): Parameter must be an array or an object that implements Countable in %s on line %d

Warning: count(): Parameter must be an array or an object that implements Countable in %s on line %d
int(0)
int(1)
int(1)
int(1)
int(2)

PHP support

Updated	Tag, Branche	Php
30/01/2022	2.x, master	5.6 - 8.1
11/03/2021	1.x	5.6 - 7.4

arnapou / php72fixcount

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