Description

Hello everyone,

Like a lot of other people, following migration to Symfony 7, we've been plagued with issues like this one: Parameter value "XXX" is invalid and flag "FILTER_NULL_ON_FAILURE" was not set.

Which requires us to change from the easy to use getInt() to the much much more verbose: $request->query->filter('XXX', filter: \FILTER_VALIDATE_INT, options: ['flags' => \FILTER_REQUIRE_SCALAR | \FILTER_NULL_ON_FAILURE])

And it gets even worse if we want a default value:

$request->query->filter('page', filter: \FILTER_VALIDATE_INT, options: ['options' => ['default' => 1], 'flags' => \FILTER_REQUIRE_SCALAR | \FILTER_NULL_ON_FAILURE])

I feel like there are two issues with this:

1: It's a lot of work to get a null on invalid values.
2: It's even worse if we want to have a default value on invalid values, because the $default parameter is ignored, which is really confusing. You have to set it as an option of filter_var.

What I would like to propose is one of the following:

1. Add a third parameter to getInt() and getBoolean(): array $options to allows to pass any arbitrary options to the underlying filter() method.

   • Pro: Allows to use any flag and retains the strong typing.
   • Con: If you set a default value in $options that is not of the right type (an int for getInt() ), PHP will yell at you (as it should!). You still need a deep understanding of how filter_var() works to make it work. Does not address the default value issue (you still need to provide it as an option of filter_var in case of failure AND as $default to handle a non-existing value).

2. Add a third parameter to getInt() and getBoolean(): bool $returnNullOnFailure. If set to true, in case of invalid value, null will be returned.

   • Pro: Super easy to use. Allows to handle default value on failure by using a simple ?? value.
   • Con: Would require to change the return type to ?int or ?bool, which could break a lot of static analysis in people's projects as suddendly a null check must be performed everywhere.

3. Add a third parameter to getInt() and getBoolean(): bool $returnDefaultOnFailure. If set to true, in case of invalid value, the default value probided in $default will be returned. If false, the current behavior or throwing an UnexpectedValueException will be used.

   • Pro: Super easy to use. Does not require a change in the return type. Handles the default value in case of failure gracefully (only need to set ($default)).
   • Con: Does not allow to get null on invalid value.

From what I saw in the multiple post regarding this issue, most people aren't actually concerned with getting a null on failure, but rather want to get back the Symfony 6.x behavior of returning the default value.

With that in mind, I feel like version 3 offers the best value.
With a simple optional parameter, you can handle invalid values like you used to in previous versions of Symfony.
If you want to keep a strict control and know when an invalid value is passed, you can also do so.

I feel like the same change should be implemented in #[MapQueryParameter] to avoid this kind of code: #[MapQueryParameter(flags: \FILTER_NULL_ON_FAILURE, options: ['default' => 0])] and rather just rely on the default value set on the property itself.

I'd be willing to provide a PR for this if I do get the go ahead from the community.

Thanks a lot.

Example

Assume the following request: http://www.example.com/blog?page=aa.

Before:

With the following code:

$page = $request->query->getInt('page', 1);
echo $page;

Result

UnexpectedValueException: Parameter value "page" is invalid and flag "FILTER_NULL_ON_FAILURE" was not set.

With the following code:

$page = $request->query->filter('page', filter: \FILTER_VALIDATE_INT, options: ['options' => ['default' => 1], 'flags' => \FILTER_REQUIRE_SCALAR | \FILTER_NULL_ON_FAILURE])
echo $page;

Result

1

After:

With the following code (NO CHANGES):

$page = $request->query->getInt('page', 1);
echo $page;

Result

UnexpectedValueException: Parameter value "page" is invalid and flag "FILTER_NULL_ON_FAILURE" was not set.

With the following code:

$page = $request->query->getInt('page', 1, returnDefaultOnFailure: true);
echo $page;

Result

1