Req->Doc #73576 [Opn->Csd]: Create array_concat alias for array_merge

Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=73576&edit=1

 ID:                 73576
 Updated by:         [email protected]
 Reported by:        ian at ianchanning dot com
 Summary:            Create array_concat alias for array_merge
-Status:             Open
+Status:             Closed
-Type:               Feature/Change Request
+Type:               Documentation Problem
 Package:            Arrays related
 Operating System:   N/A
 PHP Version:        5.6.28
-Assigned To:        
+Assigned To:        cmb
 Block user comment: N
 Private report:     N

 New Comment:

Okay, closing then per my comment above.


Previous Comments:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2021-12-19 19:33:54] [email protected]

Not suggesting anything here, my bad changing the type of the bug

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2021-12-15 17:19:13] [email protected]

The first sentence of the description is (emphasis mine):

| Merges the elements of one or more arrays together so that the
| values of one are *appended* to the end of the previous one.

"Append" is, in my opinion, even clearer than "concatenate".  I
don't see that the documentation could be improved here.

However, Gabriel changed this back to feature request.  Are you
suggesting we should actually introduce an alias for
array_merge()?

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2017-05-18 00:47:08] [email protected]

This is more of a documentation issue IMO.
Some better wording on the manual pages of the array section may help out, but there's no need to further pollute the global namespace with aliases.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2016-11-21 22:01:27] ian at ianchanning dot com

Description:
------------
There is no documented array concatenation function. This is a very common function, e.g. Javascript and Ruby have the `concat` function, Python has `+` and Haskell has `++`. 

The `array_merge` function (http://php.net/manual/en/function.array-merge.php) is what has be used if you want to concatenate arrays. However it is not mentioned in the documentation (not even in the comments) of that method that that is what should be used.

I propose that `array_concat` be created as an alias of `array_merge`. The concatenation of an associative array is also consistent with trying to merge the hash maps. For example this Stack Overflow question on [concatenating two dictionaries](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1781571/how-to-concatenate-two-dictionaries-to-create-a-new-one-in-python#1784128) is marked as a duplicate of the function 'How to merge two Python dictionaries'. That is, it is consistent that hash map concatenation is the same as hash map merging.

So I believe that `array_concat` is a perfect alias for `array_merge` in terms of numeric arrays and a valid (albeit unnecessary) alias for associative arrays.

This will help almost all developers coming to PHP from other dynamic languages. 

Test script:
---------------
<?php
var_dump(array_concat(array('London'), array('Calling')));
?>



Expected result:
----------------
array(2) {
  [0]=>
  string(6) "London"
  [1]=>
  string(7) "Calling"
}




------------------------------------------------------------------------



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Edit this bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=73576&edit=1