How should I improve this lazy loading pattern in PhP?

Question

static $searchQuery="nothing";

if ($searchQuery=="nothing")
{
    if ($referral=="")
    {
        $referral=referrer();
    }
    $searchQuery=getSearchQuery($referral);
}
return $searchQuery;

Basically I need to initialize $searchQuery with something.

I can initialize it with "" but the value of $searchQuery is often legitimately "".

So how should I initialize it? ""? Nil? Null? array()? What?

I can also use

static $result;
if  (isset($result))
{
    return $result;
}

but I got warning because $result is not defined.

Please start by explaining what you are trying to do. (Leave implementation details aside) — Madara's Ghost
– Madara's Ghost, Commented Dec 13, 2013 at 9:00

Sammitch · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-18 17:00:51Z

2

It's up to you, but you need to be careful with PHP's loose typing. I prefer NULL, and I would write that code as:

static $searchQuery = NULL;

if( is_null($searchQuery) ) {
    if( emtpy($referral) ) {
        $referral=referrer();
    }
    $searchQuery=getSearchQuery($referral);
}
return $searchQuery;

answered Jan 18, 2013 at 17:00

Sammitch

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2 Comments

user4951 Over a year ago

Is NULL equal to 0? 0 is a possible value to return by the way.

Sammitch Over a year ago

@JimThio In PHP's usual 'lazy' comparison NULL, 0, "0", and "" are all equivalent to false. is_null() is a strict comparison equivalent to $value === NULL and will only return true if the value is NULL.

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