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The Note You're Voting On

19 years ago
I keep seeing qualification lists for error types/error-nums as arrays; In user notes and in the manual itself. For example, in this manual entry's example, when trying to seperate behavior for the variable trace in the error report:

<?php //...

// set of errors for which a var trace will be saved
$user_errors = array(E_USER_ERROR, E_USER_WARNING, E_USER_NOTICE);

//and later...

if (in_array($errno, $user_errors)) {
    //...whatever
}

//... ?>

I was under the impression that PHP error code values where bitwise flag values. Wouldn't bitwise masking be better? So I propose a slightly better way:
<?php //...

$user_errors = E_USER_ERROR | E_USER_WARNING | E_USER_NOTICE;

//...blah...

if ($errno & $user_errors) {
    //...whatever
}

//... ?>
Or for those of you who don't like the idea of using an integer as the condition in an if statement:

<?php
if (($errno & $user_errors) > 0) {
    //...whatever
}
?>

I think that's much more efficient than using _yet another_ array() constuct and an in_array().

If I am wrong, and the E_* constants aren't supposed to be used in this fashion (ie, the constans aren't guaranteed to be bitwise, which would be odd since that's how they're setup in the php.ini file), then delete me. I just don't see why one should be using arrays when bitwise comparisons will work, considering the bitwise method should be MUCH more efficient.
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