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PHP8 - What's New In PHP8? Cheat Sheet by

A rundown of the changes in PHP8

PHP8 Variable Types

Class/­int­erface name
An instance of the class or interface
self
The same class the type is used in
parent
The parent of the class the type is used in
callable
Something callable
bool
A boolean
int
An integer
float
A float
string
A string
array
An array
iterable
Array or traver­sable
object
An object
mixed
Any value
Return Types
void
Function will not return anything
static
Function may return
static

New mixed type

Mixed means any one of:
 
array
bool
callable
 
string
int
resource
 
float
null
object
Note that because
mixed
already contains
null
, it is not nullable itself.

Return static

class Foo
{
    public function test(): static
    {
        return new static();
    }
}
Static is now a valid return type.

The nullsafe operator (copy)

$foo = $bar->getBaz()?->asFormatted();
Quickly check for nulls in method returns.

Union types

public function foo(Foo|Bar $input): int|float;
You can now specify more than one type in a type hint:
• The
void
type cannot be part of a union.
• Unions can be nullable by including
null
as a type or preceding with a question mark.

Named arguments

function foo(string $a, int $b, ?string $c = null)
{
    ...
}

foo(
    c: 'value c',
    a: 'value a'
);
Pass values to functions and methods by name, regardless of the order in which they are defined.
 

Attributes

use App\Attributes\ExampleAttribute;

#[ExampleAttribute]
class Foo
{
    #[ExampleAttribute]
    public const FOO = 'foo';
 
    #[ExampleAttribute]
    public $x;
 
    #[ExampleAttribute]
    public function foo(#[ExampleAttribute] $bar) { }
}
Structured metadata

Match expression

$result = match($input) {
    0 => "hello",
    '1', '2', '3' => "world",
};
Switch statements made simple. Note, the compar­isons made by
match
use strict types.

Constr­uctor property promotion

class Money 
{
    public function __construct(
        public Currency $currency,
        public int $amount,
    ) {}
}
In the above example
Currency
and
int
are both automa­tically made public properties of the class and assigned values on constr­uction.

Weak maps

class Foo 
{
    private WeakMap $cache;
 
    public function getSomethingWithCaching(object $obj): object
    {
        return $this->cache[$obj]
           ??= $this->computeSomethingExpensive($obj);
    }
}
A weak map allows for storage of key-value pairs, but the PHP garbage collection will drop a weak map element where the only reference to it is the weak map itself.

Throw expression

$triggerError = fn () => throw new MyError();
$foo = $bar['offset'] ?? throw new CustomEx('offset');
Throw is now an expression instead of a statement, making it more flexible.

Non-ca­pturing catches

try {
    // Something goes wrong
} catch (MySpecialException) {
    Log::error("Something went wrong");
}
When you catch exceptions and throwa­bles, you no longer need a variable.
 

::class on objects

$foo = new Foo();
var_dump($foo::class);
Works the same as
get_cl­ass()
.

Trailing comma in parameter lists

public function(
    string $parameterA,
    int $parameterB,
    Foo $objectfoo,
) {
    // …
}
You can now end a parameter list with a comma without an error.

Create DateTime objects from interfaces

DateTime::createFromInterface(DateTimeInterface $other);
DateTimeImmutable::createFromInterface(DateTimeInterface $other);

New Stringable interface

class Foo
{
    public function __toString(): string
    {
        return 'foo';
    }
}

function bar(string|Stringable $stringable) { // }

bar(new Foo());
bar('abc');

New functions

str_co­nta­ins­('h­ays­tack', 'needle')
Does haystack contain needle?
str_st­art­s_w­ith­('h­ays­tack', 'needle')
Does haystack start with needle?
str_en­ds_­wit­h('­hay­stack', 'needle')
Does haystack end with needle?
fdiv()
Handles division by zero without an error.
get_de­bug­_type()
Like
gettype()
but with more detail
get_re­sou­rce­_id()
Fetch the numeric ID of a resource

Breaking Changes

Internal errors and engine warnings have been made consistent and/or reclas­sified.
The
@
operator no longer silences fatal errors.
The default error reporting level is now
E_ALL
.
The default PDO error mode is no longer silent.
Concat­enation precedence has changed - addition now precedes concat­ena­tion.
Namespaces can now include reserved names.
Reflec­tio­nFu­nct­ion­::i­sDi­sab­led()
,
Reflec­tio­nPa­ram­ete­r::­get­Class()
and
Reflec­tio­nPa­ram­ete­r::­isC­all­able()
have been deprec­ated.
There are more breaking and engine changes, this list is limited to those you are most likely to encounter. For a full run-down, check out Brent's article linked below.

With Thanks

This is a condensed version of the excellent PHP8 write-up you can find by Brent at stitch­er.io
                   
 

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