Replace intval(), strval(), ... function calls with type casts

[ayeshrajans]

PHP's intval(), strval(), floatval() and boolval() are from PHP 4 ages. PHP 5 and later has the type hinting pattern (e.g (int) $var) that is ~6x faster than their function-call counterpart.

There are over 250 such calls, and I'll upload a patch to replace them with type hints. The patch itself is large, but because intval() and (int) are identical in usage, I hope you can review it. The test suit passed (​https://travis-ci.org/Ayesh/wordpress-develop/builds/317469175).

I have not changed anything in third party libraries (such as random_compat).

Thank you.

[ayeshrajans]

ONe big patch with all changes

[ayeshrajans]

Please disregard the previous patch. Uploading a new one with proper WP code styling. Thanks to ​https://github.com/Mahjouba91 for the review and additional fixes.

[ayeshrajans]

Travis tests for the last attached patch: ​https://travis-ci.org/Ayesh/wordpress-develop/builds/317731953

[ayeshrajans]

Thanks a lot for picking this up. I rebased and added several more cases to the list. Tests: ​https://travis-ci.com/github/Ayesh/wordpress-develop/builds/184027317 (PHPCS linting fails at the moment), but unit tests pass in all versions.

[ayeshrajans]

Similar to the last patch, but fixes all phpcs errors as well. Tests (all passing): ​https://travis-ci.com/github/Ayesh/wordpress-develop/builds/184028745

[SergeyBiryukov]

In 49108:

General: Replace older-style PHP type conversion functions with type casts.

This improves performance, readability, and consistency throughout core.

• intval() → (int)
• strval() → (string)
• floatval() → (float)

Props ayeshrajans.
Fixes #42918.

[johnjamesjacoby]

Hey @SergeyBiryukov!

r49108 is causing some breakage for me. I think the related code change was unintended.

The Sugar Calendar plugin has used this approach for adding its Top Level menu page for a few years now:

add_menu_page(
	esc_html__( 'Calendar', 'sugar-calendar' ),
	esc_html__( 'Calendar', 'sugar-calendar' ),
	'read_calendar',
	'sugar-calendar',
	'Sugar_Calendar\\Admin\\Menu\\calendar_page',
	'dashicons-calendar-alt',
	2
);

Note the position: 2. It matches the position of core's "Dashboard" menu item.

• Before this change, WordPress would automatically reassign a float position of 2.06668 and put our "Calendar" item directly below "Dashboard" ✅
• After this change, it gets set to 2 and replaces "Dashboard" 💥

The flaw in r49108 is in add_menu_page():

$menu[ "$position" ] = $new_menu;

...was changed to use...

$menu[ $position ] = $new_menu;

Here specifically: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/49108/trunk/src/wp-admin/includes/plugin.php

PHP doesn't allow floats to be array keys, but it will allow strings to be, and WordPress is (perhaps unintentionally) smart enough to continue to order ints and strings-with-float-contents in the correct numerical sequence.

I'd recommend reverting those lines, perhaps to this to be even more clear that this is intentional:

$menu[ "{$position}" ] = $new_menu;

Thoughts?

[SergeyBiryukov]

Replying to johnjamesjacoby:

The flaw in r49108 is in add_menu_page():

$menu[ "$position" ] = $new_menu;

...was changed to use...

$menu[ $position ] = $new_menu;

Here specifically: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/49108/trunk/src/wp-admin/includes/plugin.php

PHP doesn't allow floats to be array keys, but it will allow strings to be, and WordPress is (perhaps unintentionally) smart enough to continue to order ints and strings-with-float-contents in the correct numerical sequence.

Good catch, thanks!

I only tested this with integers and numeric strings representing an integer, which produced the same results, as also described in this Stack Overflow thread: ​A numeric string as array key. But I forgot about floats :)

[ocean90]

In 49138:

Administration: Restore alternative admin menu position for menu items with the same position value as an existing menu item.

Reverts parts of [49108].

Props johnjamesjacoby.
Fixes #42918.

[desrosj]

Let's mention that this was done for core in the miscellaneous dev note and encourage others to consider making the change in their code.

[daisyo]

Dev note published: ​https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/11/20/miscellaneous-developer-focused-changes-in-wordpress-5-6/

[daisyo]

Dev note published: ​https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/11/20/miscellaneous-developer-focused-changes-in-wordpress-5-6/

[daisyo]

Dev note published: ​https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/11/23/wordpress-and-php-8-0/