[php-src] master: ext/filter: Narrow the return type of filter_var_array() to array|false (#23403)

Author: Louis-Arnaud (lacatoire)
Committer: GitHub (web-flow)
Pusher: kocsismate
Date: 2026-08-31T14:21:14+02:00

Commit: https://github.com/php/php-src/commit/f74c740c6ca6e5e1a8ebd1d275c49ec66214fd70
Raw diff: https://github.com/php/php-src/commit/f74c740c6ca6e5e1a8ebd1d275c49ec66214fd70.diff

ext/filter: Narrow the return type of filter_var_array() to array|false (#23403)

The stub declares array|false|null, but null is unreachable. The function
has two exits: RETURN_FALSE for an unknown filter id, and the array handler,
which establishes an array on both of its branches before doing anything
else. Its remaining exits throw.

The sibling filter_input_array() is declared identically and does return
null, deliberately, because its source superglobal may not exist. That case
has no equivalent here, where the source is a required array parameter.

null remains an ordinary element value in the returned array, which is
likely where the wider union came from; that is the value type, not the
return type.

Changed paths:
  M  UPGRADING
  M  Zend/Optimizer/zend_func_infos.h
  M  ext/filter/filter.stub.php
  M  ext/filter/filter_arginfo.h


Diff:

diff --git a/UPGRADING b/UPGRADING
index 5a5cafc0234f..b6bf7cd0249c 100644
--- a/UPGRADING
+++ b/UPGRADING
@@ -639,6 +639,12 @@ PHP 8.6 UPGRADE NOTES
 5. Changed Functions
 ========================================
 
+- Filter:
+  . filter_var_array() return type has been narrowed from array|false|null to
+    array|false. The function always establishes an array before filtering, so
+    null was never returned. filter_input_array() is unaffected: it still
+    returns null when the requested superglobal does not exist.
+
 - GMP:
   . gmp_fact() now throws a ValueError if $num does not fit into an unsigned
     long.
diff --git a/Zend/Optimizer/zend_func_infos.h b/Zend/Optimizer/zend_func_infos.h
index cfe758db7961..b14de7888a94 100644
--- a/Zend/Optimizer/zend_func_infos.h
+++ b/Zend/Optimizer/zend_func_infos.h
@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ static const func_info_t func_infos[] = {
 	F1("finfo_buffer", MAY_BE_STRING|MAY_BE_FALSE),
 	F1("mime_content_type", MAY_BE_STRING|MAY_BE_FALSE),
 	F1("filter_input_array", MAY_BE_ARRAY|MAY_BE_ARRAY_KEY_LONG|MAY_BE_ARRAY_KEY_STRING|MAY_BE_ARRAY_OF_ANY|MAY_BE_ARRAY_OF_REF|MAY_BE_FALSE|MAY_BE_NULL),
-	F1("filter_var_array", MAY_BE_ARRAY|MAY_BE_ARRAY_KEY_LONG|MAY_BE_ARRAY_KEY_STRING|MAY_BE_ARRAY_OF_ANY|MAY_BE_ARRAY_OF_REF|MAY_BE_FALSE|MAY_BE_NULL),
+	F1("filter_var_array", MAY_BE_ARRAY|MAY_BE_ARRAY_KEY_LONG|MAY_BE_ARRAY_KEY_STRING|MAY_BE_ARRAY_OF_ANY|MAY_BE_ARRAY_OF_REF|MAY_BE_FALSE),
 	F1("filter_list", MAY_BE_ARRAY|MAY_BE_ARRAY_KEY_LONG|MAY_BE_ARRAY_OF_STRING),
 	F1("ftp_raw", MAY_BE_ARRAY|MAY_BE_ARRAY_KEY_LONG|MAY_BE_ARRAY_OF_STRING|MAY_BE_NULL),
 	F1("ftp_nlist", MAY_BE_ARRAY|MAY_BE_ARRAY_KEY_LONG|MAY_BE_ARRAY_OF_STRING|MAY_BE_FALSE),
diff --git a/ext/filter/filter.stub.php b/ext/filter/filter.stub.php
index 4332f9261e98..16a6fe5c940c 100644
--- a/ext/filter/filter.stub.php
+++ b/ext/filter/filter.stub.php
@@ -310,7 +310,7 @@ function filter_var(mixed $value, int $filter = FILTER_DEFAULT, array|int $optio
 function filter_input_array(int $type, array|int $options = FILTER_DEFAULT, bool $add_empty = true): array|false|null {}
 
 /** @refcount 1 */
-function filter_var_array(array $array, array|int $options = FILTER_DEFAULT, bool $add_empty = true): array|false|null {}
+function filter_var_array(array $array, array|int $options = FILTER_DEFAULT, bool $add_empty = true): array|false {}
 
 /**
  * @return array<int, string>
diff --git a/ext/filter/filter_arginfo.h b/ext/filter/filter_arginfo.h
index 4e24ede41a63..891647362997 100644
--- a/ext/filter/filter_arginfo.h
+++ b/ext/filter/filter_arginfo.h
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /* This is a generated file, edit filter.stub.php instead.
- * Stub hash: c3eb55dfec619af1e46be206f51a2b0893ed399f */
+ * Stub hash: bd421586fdc068c456415b597d718787eb140517 */
 
 ZEND_BEGIN_ARG_WITH_RETURN_TYPE_INFO_EX(arginfo_filter_has_var, 0, 2, _IS_BOOL, 0)
 	ZEND_ARG_TYPE_INFO(0, input_type, IS_LONG, 0)
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ ZEND_BEGIN_ARG_WITH_RETURN_TYPE_MASK_EX(arginfo_filter_input_array, 0, 1, MAY_BE
 	ZEND_ARG_TYPE_INFO_WITH_DEFAULT_VALUE(0, add_empty, _IS_BOOL, 0, "true")
 ZEND_END_ARG_INFO()
 
-ZEND_BEGIN_ARG_WITH_RETURN_TYPE_MASK_EX(arginfo_filter_var_array, 0, 1, MAY_BE_ARRAY|MAY_BE_FALSE|MAY_BE_NULL)
+ZEND_BEGIN_ARG_WITH_RETURN_TYPE_MASK_EX(arginfo_filter_var_array, 0, 1, MAY_BE_ARRAY|MAY_BE_FALSE)
 	ZEND_ARG_TYPE_INFO(0, array, IS_ARRAY, 0)
 	ZEND_ARG_TYPE_MASK(0, options, MAY_BE_ARRAY|MAY_BE_LONG, "FILTER_DEFAULT")
 	ZEND_ARG_TYPE_INFO_WITH_DEFAULT_VALUE(0, add_empty, _IS_BOOL, 0, "true")