http://crschmidt.net/blog/102/logical-and-precedence/ Ramblings of a GIS Hacker Tue, 18 Nov 2008 10:06:22 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 http://crschmidt.net/blog/102/logical-and-precedence/#comment-4034 Timwi Tue, 25 Oct 2005 10:54:00 +0000 http://crschmidt.net/blog/archives/102/logical-and-precedence/#comment-4034 Now I'm somewhat surprised about this. As much as I hate disagreeing with an anti-PHP statement, but:<ul><li>I can't believe you would <i>want</i> for "<code>$var = $test || $default;</code>" to do the assignment first. That runs contrary to intuitive expectation as well as C/C++/C#/Java/everything else.</li><li>I'm surprised you ask "Who thought this was a smart idea?" when the answer is probably Larry Wall. The "two <code>AND</code>/<code>OR</code> operators with different precendence" idea comes from Perl, and PHP has copied it. PHP may have messed up other precedences (I wouldn't be surprised), but the statement that <code>=</code> has a higher precendence than <code>or</code> but a lower precendence than <code>||</code> applies both to PHP and to Perl.</li></ul> Now I’m somewhat surprised about this. As much as I hate disagreeing with an anti-PHP statement, but:

• I can’t believe you would want for “$var = $test || $default;” to do the assignment first. That runs contrary to intuitive expectation as well as C/C++/C#/Java/everything else.
• I’m surprised you ask “Who thought this was a smart idea?” when the answer is probably Larry Wall. The “two AND/OR operators with different precendence” idea comes from Perl, and PHP has copied it. PHP may have messed up other precedences (I wouldn’t be surprised), but the statement that = has a higher precendence than or but a lower precendence than || applies both to PHP and to Perl.

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