apcu_fetch returns associative array and not variables

[SkepticaLee]

https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.apcu-fetch.php
states under "Return values" that
"The stored variable or array of variables"

This should read:
"The stored variable or an associative array with the variables' names as keys and their values. Use extract () to convert this array to the variables themselves."

If the function returned the variables themselves then they could be fetched by a destructuring assignment, which is not the case.

[damianwadley]

IMO we should be getting rid of the term "variable" entirely (in these docs). Because apcu doesn't deal with variables - it deals with keys and values, just like every other cache system does. The idea of storing a "variable" hearkens back to the days of session_register and friends...

Hmm. Perhaps the phrasing feels less appropriate these days as web development isn't as much of a wild west as it used to be, and "advanced" concepts like caches are used much more commonly?

Anyway, I'm thinking about changes like:

@apcu_add
- Caches a variable in the data store, only if it's not already stored.
+ Caches a value in the data store by the given name, only if it's not already stored.

@apcu_fetch
- (Returns) The stored variable or array of variables on success; false on failure
+ (Returns) On success, returns the stored value if $key is a string, or an associative array if $key is an array. Returns false on failure.

@apcu_store
- Cache a variable in the data store.
+ Cache a value in the data store by the given name.

Then that means the note apcu_store (maybe others?) has

Note: Unlike many other mechanisms in PHP, variables stored using apcu_store() will persist between requests (until the value is removed from the cache).

becomes mostly irrelevant, as we're now describing apcu as a cache instead of some form of a "variable registry" or whatever.

Additionally, the apcu does could use some modernization regarding types: less mixeds and more unions.

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If the function returned the variables themselves then they could be fetched by a destructuring assignment, which is not the case.

Sure they can, associative arrays are most certainly destructurable. https://3v4l.org/Pp2gq

What kind of code are you talking about?

[SkepticaLee]

What kind of code are you talking about?

I was trying something along the lines of:

apcu_store (["progress"=>1, "rate"=>2]);
apcu_fetch (explode (" ", "progress rate current_directory directories"));

And wondering why $progress and $rate were nowhere to be found. In the end I settled on:

apcu_store (["progress"=>13, "rate"=>22]);
extract (apcu_fetch (explode (" ", "progress rate current_directory directories")));
var_dump ($progress, $rate);

It should also be noted that in this last case they keys/values for progress and rate are returned, but the function does not fail, it only returns the keys/values that are actually present.

[damianwadley]

That kinda goes towards reinforcing my point: thinking about apcu in terms of it storing and fetching "variables" is inaccurate. You can use it that way, to some degree, not that many people are happy to see code using functions like extract, but it really is just about keys and values.