$f3->exists undocumented second parameter

[f3-factory]

$f3->exists undocumented second parameter

[xfra35]

There's actually no second parameter in this function. Fixed.

[ethanpil]

Here is the source code from https://github.com/bcosca/fatfree/blob/master/lib/base.php

Starting line 244. It seems to me that there are two parameters...

/**
*   Return TRUE if hive key is not set
*   (or return timestamp and TTL if cached)
*   @return bool
*   @param $key string
*   @param $val mixed
**/
function exists($key,&$val=NULL) {
    $val=$this->ref($key,FALSE);
    return isset($val)?
        TRUE:
        (Cache::instance()->exists($this->hash($key).'.var',$val)?
            $val:FALSE);
}

[sn0opy]

Actually there's a second parameter, that's right. I was already starting to write an answer to this ticket, but since I was to stupid to figure out, what exactly ref() does, I thought it would be better to wait for someone else to answer.

I know, that the second parameter is just a refernce indicated by the &. Without that, I'd say, that $val is overwritten by $key in this line: $val=$this->ref($key,FALSE);. Which means, that the second parameter is useless and does nothing (anymore).

[ethanpil]

What I was hoping is that it can set a default value if it doesnt exist.

So, if it failed (doesnt exist) then after it will return true and exist with the set value. That might be useful.

So with no data set in CONFIG.year :

if($f3->exists('CONFIG.year'))
...would be false and not continue...

if($f3->exists('CONFIG.year',date('Y'))
...would set a default value into the hive and return true....

I thought I had seen this in an example somewhere but I just wasnt sure so thats when I started investigating...

[xfra35]

You're right, I missed that change. The 2nd parameter was added to match the Cache->exists signature: bcosca/fatfree@a60eece

That means that the logic is now the same as the one used in Cache->exists: the hive value is copied to the variable passed in reference if the variable exists. In other words, $f3->exists('foo',$bar) is a shorthand for $bar = $f3->exists('foo') ? $f3->get('foo') : NULL.

I updated the docs.

[xfra35]

@ethanpil the 2nd parameter doesn't respond to your need. But you could do something like this:

$year = $f3->get('CONFIG.year') ? : date('Y')

or if you need to update CONFIG.year:

if (!$f3->exists('CONFIG.year'))
  $f3->set('CONFIG.year',date('Y'));

or if you need to update CONFIG.year and fetch its value:

if (!$f3->exists('CONFIG.year',$year))
  $year=$f3->set('CONFIG.year',date('Y'));