PHP 8.0 Functionality & Improvements

Php 8 New Features

On November 26, 2020, PHP 8 was officially released to General Availability.

The language has received a significant update that includes several optimizations and powerful features. We're excited to walk you through some of the most exciting improvements that will help us write better code and create more stable applications.

ADDITIONAL Functionality And Improvements

PHP 8 introduces a slew of new engine features and tweaks. The new JIT compiler is, of course, the main attraction.

• JIT Compiler
• Fatal errors on incompatible method signatures
• LSP Enforcement
• Resource "Classes "
• Assertion behavior
• XML-RPC is now in PECL
• Reflection changes

Compiler-in-the-Loop (JIT)

The JIT compiler in PHP 8 is without a doubt the most widely discussed function. Although it is intriguing and deserves a lot of attention, the actual effect of the JIT compiler on PHP as a language remains to be seen.

"Classes" is a resource.

Another significant improvement in PHP 8 is resource "classes." They function as non-instantiable substitutes for some resource forms. The following are some of the alternatives:

CurlHandle: CurlHandle is now returned by curl init(), which defines a curl resource.

GdImage: A GD resource returned by the various imagecreatefrom*() functions is defined by GdImage.

The socket extension provides a number of socket_*() functions that return a Socket, and the socket address info lookup() function returns an AddressInfo case.

It's also worth noting that functions like curl close no longer kill energy (). Instead, since it's now a class case, you'll have to unset() it to de-reference it.

You gain the ability to use typehints in your methods and functions to define these classes. You used to have to leave resource arguments or return values untyped and log them with annotations; now, you can have clear types, which makes the code more readable and type-safe.

As a result, you'll need to change your code to use unset() instead of the previous functions to destroy resources. This is usually done by using search and replace.

Changes to the Reflection API

The Reflection API has been changed in PHP 8, which is a minor but significant update. You can now retrieve attributes from all other reflection groups using the Reflection API while using the attribute system (more on that later). The methods Of ReflectionParameter getClass(), isArray(), and isCallable() are now deprecated due to the inclusion of union and mixed forms. This is because it's much easier to use getType(), which returns the full list of types that a given parameter will satisfy.

Syntax Improvements

Although JIT may be the center of attention, the syntactical changes in PHP 8 provide major benefits to PHP developers. There's a lot to be excited about for developers, whether it's the removal of the standard boilerplate between promoted function Object() { [native code] } arguments or the enhanced error and exception handling.

Union Types

"mixed" pseudo type

Class Constructor property promotion

:: class ubiquity

Attributes

Match Expressions

Catch by type only

Throwing exceptions from expressions

Types of Unions

A value with a union type is one of two or more specified types. This is accomplished by placing a vertical bar between each permitted form. You've probably done this already if you've been using PHP annotations to define parameters or return values.

Union types will make code more complicated and difficult to understand whether you're returning a lot of different types or accepting a lot of different types. Even so, there are a few instances where this would be extremely useful. If you can accept either a string or an object that implements the new Stringable interface ("string|Stringable"), or if you can accept either an array or an object that implements the Traversable interface ("array|Traversable"), for example.

Match Expressions

When you use match(), the meaning you transfer it is directly compared to whatever expression is on the left-hand side. To be chosen, the value you transfer to match() must match it, whether it's a value or an expression. When the right expression is matched, the rightmost expression is evaluated, and its return value is returned; expressions can only be callables or lambda functions, and no multi-line closures are allowed.

Attributes

Attributes are also integrated at the language level in PHP 8. While attributes have been available via docblock annotations for over 15 years, having them built into the language provides better efficiency, strength, and consistency (as annotation libraries have often supported different syntax varieties). Attributes will almost certainly be commonly used in the production of rapid application development tooling.

Impacts on Laravel

Laravel is a stable and easy-to-understand open-source PHP framework. The architecture pattern is model-view-controller. Laravel reuses existing components from various frameworks to aid in the development of web applications. The resulting web application is more organized and practical.

Laravel has a large feature set that includes the core features of PHP frameworks such as CodeIgniter and Yii and other programming languages such as Ruby on Rails. Laravel has a large number of features that will speed up web growth.

Laravel can make your job simpler if you are familiar with Core PHP and Advanced PHP. If you're developing a website from the ground up, it'll save you a lot of time. Furthermore, a Laravel-based website is stable and resistant to a variety of web attacks, and the advancement in Php has allowed it to work way smoother than it used to be.

Conclusion

There will undoubtedly be some improvements in PHP8. Nonetheless, it appears that the bulk of the deprecated code being removed is for older features that haven't been used in a while.

We're curious to see how the JIT engine will affect the codebases we use and the broader PHP community, so we strongly suggest scanning your codebase for incompatibilities with PHP8 and running unit tests to ensure that your PHP applications are fully functional before saying "yes" to the upgrade.

Also, our company comprises highly qualified and experienced experts in this regard so if you are looking for someone to get your project done efficiently and satisfactorily, you are at the right place then.