PHP Idiotic Function Contest

Tuesday, August 14th, 2007

I’m holding a contest about who can find the most idiotic PHP function. Rules:

• It has to be an official part of PHP (i.e. can be found in the manual).

Leave your suggestions in the comments.

I hereby nominate the runkit_constant_redefine() function. The manual entry says:

runkit_constant_redefine - Redefine an already defined constant

There is ABSOLUTELY NO EXCUSE WHATSOEVER FOR HAVING A FUNCTION LIKE THIS IN YOUR LANGUAGE! NONE!. The person who thought this up ought to be shot on sight.

If you disagree, or can provide a rational for why this function is included in PHP, DON’T BOTHER LEAVING A COMMENT BECAUSE YOU’RE WRONG!

There. I’m a little less frustrated now.