Assert\Type constraint on natively typed property : is it useless ?

[gnutix]

Hello there,

Is there any reason to have an Assert\Type attribute/annotation over a natively typed property ? From my testing, I've seen no difference in behavior with or without it.

I'm surprised there's no mention about this in the documentation, as I'm not the first one to wonder.

Thanks for your insights.
gnutix

[MatTheCat]

General Kenobi 🤖

There are only two behaviors when setting a value to a differently-typed property: either it crashes, or the value is silently converted to the property type (false being converted to an empty string e.g.).

That means the only case where the property is assigned, you’re guaranteed its value has the correct type. As such, the Type constraint won’t serve any purpose.

[gnutix]

Thanks for the confirmation!

[MatTheCat]

Late thought: you could use the constraint to assert a value has a subtype of its propertyʼs. Not sure if it is useful in practice 🤔

[gnutix]

We use it to assert lists of objects for example. Something like #[AssertAll(new AssertType(Some object::class))].