PHP continues to be one of the most widely used scripting languages on the web, with 77.3% of all the websites whose server-side programming language is known using it, according to w3tech. PHP 8 brings many new features and improvements, which we shall explore in this article series.
PHP 8 is a major update to PHP that introduces new features and improvements in all language areas, such as expressions, classes, functions, operators, and more.
New expression-related syntax includes attributes, "match" expression, the "instanceof" operator, and the "new" operator.
Speaking of new features related to classes, PHP 8 brings:
- Enums, a layer over classes to specify an enumerated list of possible values for a type
- The new "readonly" modifier for a class property, which makes the property unmodifiable after its initialization
- Constructor parameter promotion, which is useful to assign a constructor parameter value to an object property automatically
- PHP 8.0 also adds support for several functions- and methods-related features, including enhanced callables, named function arguments, and Fibers, interruptible functions, adding support for multitasking.
Improvements to the PHP type system include union, intersection, and mixed types, as well as the "static" and "never" return types. Additionally, PHP 8 also brings support for "true", "null", and "false" stand-alone types.
Articles in this series include:
This content is an excerpt from a recent InfoQ article by Deepak Vohra, "Article Series: PHP 8.x".
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