[shail-mehta]

Trac ticket: #65823

Backports: WordPress/gutenberg#86119

What?

Replaces ! isset( … ) { … = array(); } empty-array guards with the null coalescing assignment operator (??=) in two Core files.

Why?

$x ??= array() is equivalent to the longer ! isset guard and matches the ongoing #65823 cleanup. These two spots were still using the old pattern (Gutenberg already covers the same changes).

How?

• src/wp-includes/block-supports/anchor.php: $block_type->attributes ??= array();
• src/wp-includes/class-wp-duotone.php: $settings['styles'] ??= array(); in WP_Duotone::add_editor_settings()

No behavior change.

Testing Instructions

# Confirm the diff is only ??= replacements:
git diff origin/trunk -- src/wp-includes/block-supports/anchor.php src/wp-includes/class-wp-duotone.php

Optionally smoke-test block editor load with a duotone-capable block and an anchor-supporting block.

Use of AI Tools

• Cursor

[github-actions]

Test using WordPress Playground

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Test this pull request with WordPress Playground.

[Copilot]

🟢 Approval recommended

No active review issues are recorded for the empty-array initialization cleanup.

No open issues 🎉

What changed in this PR

Modernizes empty-array initialization in WordPress Core’s anchor support and duotone handling as part of the #65823 cleanup, with no behavior change.

Changes:

• Replaces two ! isset() guards with equivalent ??= assignments.
• Preserves empty-array defaults for unset or null values.

File	Description
src/​wp-includes/​class-wp-duotone.php	Simplifies the editor styles array default in add_editor_settings().
src/​wp-includes/​block-supports/​anchor.php	Simplifies the block attributes array default for anchor support.

_{Review effort: Balanced}

[github-actions]

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