optional and boolean api inconsistency

[wayneashleyberry]

It feels unintuitive to me that optional and boolean use completely different input values.

Shouldn't they both use percentages?

[fzaninotto]

You're right. Unfortunately, changing either one of optionalor boolean will lead to a BC break... which I don't want for now.

Let's keep this open for Faker 2.0.

[wayneashleyberry]

Excellent! Thanks :)

[EmanueleMinotto]

The mt_rand function accepts only integers, so what about a solution like this for the v1.* versions and a BC for the v2?

$faker->optional(40); // new optional method with percentage
$faker->optional(0.6); // old system

Internally could be:

    public function optional($weight = 0.5, $default = null)
    {
        // case 1
        if (ctype_digit($weight) && mt_rand(1, 100) <= $weight) {
            return $this->generator;
        }

        // case 2
        if ($weight > 0 && $weight < 1 && mt_rand() / mt_getrandmax() <= $weight) {
            return $this->generator;
        }

        return new DefaultGenerator($default);
    }

Use cases

• $faker->optional(0) conflict but useless imho, in case 1 it always return NULL, in case 2 it never return NULL
• $faker->optional(0.5) no conflict, case 2 is invoked
• $faker->optional(1) conflict if we consider both cases, but considering that case 2 with $weight == 1 is always NULL, case 1 is the only with sense
• $faker->optional(50) no conflict, case 1 is invoked
• $faker->optional(100) no conflict, case 1 is invoked

I can write a PR if this is ok for you.

[fzaninotto]

Great idea! I'd love a PR.

[wayneashleyberry]

Closed due to inactivity.