exception - PHP 5.5.16 Illegal offset type in isset or empty -

i'm working laravel here (semi-irrelevant) , running weird php issues i've not seen before. receiving exception error:

illegal offset type in isset or empty

the code in laravel framework (illuminate\view\factory.php), , relevant snippet throwing error is:

if (isset($this->aliases[$view])) $view = $this->aliases[$view]; 

now, understand if pass array or object in array key, throw error. but, dumped out $this->aliases , received:

array(0) { } 

and dumped out $view , received:

string(11) "layouts.app" 

so, regardless of fact array empty, call isset should return false string key not set.

i don't believe should error @ all, there setting in php.ini can cause such strict errors can change or not understanding fundamental operation of isset() method?

edit

this must related mihai stancu's comment below. tested , works fine without exception:

$key = 'test-key'; $test = array(); if (isset($test[$key]))    var_dump('yep'); else    var_dump('nope'); 

that outputs "nope" expected.

simply declare $something = aliases[$view] , parse string ,

if (isset($this->$something))