mb_strlen() expects parameter 1 to be string, array given

I'm seeing a similar warning in watchdog log:

Warning: mb_strlen() expects parameter 1 to be string, array given in drupal_strlen() (line 409 of /var/www/drupal/includes/unicode.inc).

This is being logged dozends of times per minute, so it'd be really nice to get rid of it.

Related issues:

• #289800: Error on user creation - warning: mb_strlen() expects parameter 1 to be string, array given
• #378558: warning: mb_strlen() expects parameter 1 to be string, array given in /root/htdocs/d6/includes/unicode.inc on line 404.

Hi, higherform.

I, bored of seeing the same error while my users edit forms in other language than english, I make a workaround, at least to evade the error in the log. Is this:

Edit the includes/unicode.inc file:

At line 406 you will find the drupal_strlen function, with the mb_strlen failing method.

function drupal_strlen($text) {
  global $multibyte;
  if ($multibyte == UNICODE_MULTIBYTE) {
    return mb_strlen($text);
  }
  else {
    // Do not count UTF-8 continuation bytes.
    return strlen(preg_replace("/[\x80-\xBF]/", '', $text));
  }
}

Now just add this code

function drupal_strlen($text) {
global $multibyte;
if (is_array($text)) {
$text = $text[1];
}

if ($multibyte == UNICODE_MULTIBYTE) {
return mb_strlen($text);
}
else {
// Do not count UTF-8 continuation bytes.
return strlen(preg_replace("/[\x80-\xBF]/", '', $text));
}
}

This checks for an array and get only the first value of the array to avoid the array error. It is not perfect, but in any case the function mb_strlen was failing with the array, so I think that no problems will be expected.

Hi Guys,

Can somebody give a sample flow of steps how could the bug be reproduced? I'm trying to get it for 2 days without any success. I installed Taxiselect and played with it couple of hours - it gave me lots of errors but none of them were the mb_string problem.

Thanks!

Well, I dont know about Taxiselect, but I can tell you my config:

Just nodes with imagefield, taxonomy and nothing more.
i18 module installed.

Observe that, in english, all worked fine, but when I chose spanish (I have multilanguage config as path only, it is adding /es/ to urls) then the errors appeared, always.

I'm supposing that i18 adds some arrays to have original-translated content (or something similar) and then mb_string error appears.

+1

+1

+1

If an array is passed you should recursively get the length of all elements. Where the element can be either a string or an array of strings.

if (is_array($text)) {
   foreach ($text as $element) {
      $strlen += drupal_strlen($element);
   }
   return $strlen;
}

PS: I wouldn't just reference $text[1] in case it is an associated array.

Relating to #2, I got fixed it this way. Try to override the function rather than editing core files, if you want to use files in your other sites too.

Path: includes/unicode.inc

Search for function drupal_strlen($text) {

Replace that entire function as below:

function drupal_strlen($text) {
  global $multibyte;
  if (is_array($text)){
    foreach($text as $jtext) {
      if ($multibyte == UNICODE_MULTIBYTE) {
        return mb_strlen($jtext);
      }
      else {
        // Do not count UTF-8 continuation bytes.
        return strlen(preg_replace("/[\x80-\xBF]/", '', $jtext));
      }
    }
  }
  else {
    if ($multibyte == UNICODE_MULTIBYTE) {
      return mb_strlen($text);
    }
    else {
      // Do not count UTF-8 continuation bytes.
      return strlen(preg_replace("/[\x80-\xBF]/", '', $text));
    }
  }
}

Note: tested in drupal 7 only