PHP 7 - String

[huglester]

Hello,

today after deployin to php7 I got this:

Cannot use PhpOffice\PhpWord\Shared\String as String because 'String' is a special class name in /home/.../vendor/phpoffice/phpword/src/PhpWord/Style/Paragraph.php

Probably only way would be to rename 'String' ?

Thanks

[vswarte]

This is due to scalar type hinting implemented in PHP7, outlined here: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/scalar_type_hints_v5

The name "string" has become reserved.
Might fix if you let me PR.

[huglester]

Would be really nice if this project would have PHP7 support. I am not against if you want to make a PR :) but probably @RomanSyroeshko should tell if he will accept it, as it can have some BC breaks probably for those who are extending this class or so.
On other hand, since it's not yet stable (1.0 version) ir should be possible to make such changes.

[vswarte]

Looks like someone beat me to it, #628 and b367405

This issue should probably be marked duplicate.

[uusa35]

i have changed the whole String within the package to StringElement and it's working fine.
you go to the vendor folder phpOffice/Phpword/... String.php change it to StringElement.php then all the files depending on such class String:: ==> StringElement:: and it worked just fine

[huglester]

I am closing this issue since there are pending Pull Requests!

[imranswe]

As far as I know about the namespaces in a OOP language they are meant to avoid conflicts with the language compiler or interpreter classes. Here in this situation the class is in PhpOffice\PhpWord\Shared\String which should be treated as a different class than the PHP special class String. I have followed @uusa35 suggestion to rename the class name and replace its usage and it worked but this is not good and we should be able to use any class as long as it is in a unique different namespace or package.

[huglester]

I think you should add another issue! Indeed String is reserved in php7

Apologize my hilarious tone, but just a way to give my +1 on this issue and try to give a smile:

I agree with @imranswe.... namespace are (should be) meant for allowing that!

the issue is that PHP is not simply an OOP language, but a 'sOOP language' where the s stands for ***king and where asterisks are not a failed markdown try but a way to not say that it sucks ops...I said it ;).

So even if i agree that the current implementation is correct, we've to accept that non-sense 'String is special classname' limitation of php and workaround it... many other frameworks or libraries have that similar issue, eg. Joomla CMS..

Anyway PHP sucks less due to awesome libraries like this, so thank you for this good opensource work, keep going :) !

[gurnzbot]

I also had to change out String to StringElement on a server with php7.