Is there a better PHP way for getting default valu

Question

In Python one can do:

foo = {}
assert foo.get('bar', 'baz') == 'baz'

In PHP one can go for a trinary operator as in:

$foo = array();
assert( (isset($foo['bar'])) ? $foo['bar'] : 'baz' == 'baz');

I am looking for a golf version. Can I do it shorter/better in PHP?

Answer 1

A "slightly" hacky way to do it:

<?php
    $foo = array();
    var_dump('baz' == $tmp = &$foo['bar']);
    $foo['bar'] = 'baz';
    var_dump('baz' == $tmp = &$foo['bar']);

http://codepad.viper-7.com/flXHCH

Obviously this isn't really the nice way to do it. But it is handy in other situations. E.g. I often declare shortcuts to GET and POST variables like that:

<?php
    $name =& $_GET['name'];
    // instead of
    $name = isset($_GET['name']) ? $_GET['name'] : null;

PS: One could call this the "built-in ==$_=& special comparison operator":

<?php
    var_dump('baz' ==$_=& $foo['bar']);

PPS: Well, you could obviously just use

<?php
    var_dump('baz' == @$foo['bar']);

but that's even worse than the ==$_=& operator. People don't like the error suppression operator much, you know.