PHP 7.4: Splat Inconsistency
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:category:  PHP
:tags:      php 7.4, splat operator, wtf?
:date:      2019-08-29 21:52:00 +0300

PHP 7.4 has this great new feature: splat operator now works in array expressions.

.. TEASER_END

.. code-block:: php

    <?php
    var_export([1,2,3, ...[4,5,6]]); // [1,2,3,4,5,6]

including when it is in the middle

.. code-block:: php

    <?php
    var_export([1,2,3, ...[4,5,6], 7,8,9]); // [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]

Let's have some variadic function

.. code-block:: php

    <?php

    function sum(...$values)
    {
        return array_sum($values);
    }

but

.. code-block:: php

    <?php
    // PHP 5.6 - 7.4
    echo sum(1,2,3, ...[4,5,6], 7,8,9); // PHP Fatal error: Cannot use positional argument after argument unpacking

of course there is a well-known workaround

.. code-block:: php

    <?php
    echo sum(1,2,3, ...[4,5,6], ...[7,8,9]); // 45

and now also this

.. code-block:: php

    <?php
    // PHP 7.4+
    echo sum(...[1,2,3, ...[4,5,6], 7,8,9]); // 45

but why wasn't the original behavior fixed as well?