> When you document how something behaves in any particular case programmers are going to use it, especially in a case like this where the behavior is actually

> When you document how something behaves in any particular case programmers are going to use it, especially in a case like this where the behavior is actually useful. This is true and also the reason of the extraordinary warning and the years-long phase-out. The old count is not really a sharp-shooter, however once we got accustomed to it, we all have our habits. I only once needed it, IIRC: function good_old_count(mixed $mixed): int { return (is_array($mixed) || ($mixed instanceof Countable)) ? count($mixed) : ( (int) ( null !== $mixed ) ) ; }