This content originally appeared on Level Up Coding - Medium and was authored by Tara Prasad Routray
Learn the most amazing features offered by PHP 8.1 update.
PHP 8.1 is now available, and it ships with new features and performance improvements — the most exciting one is the new JIT compiler. It has been recently released on November 25, 2021.
I will demonstrate the top 10 features offered by PHP 8.1 in detail so that you can start using them in your projects, and improve your experience with PHP. Beginners and experienced developers can benefit from this article.
Top 10 Features Offered By PHP 8.1
- Enumerations
- Fibers
- The ‘never’ Return Type
- The ‘readonly’ Property
- Final Class Constants
- New ‘array_is_list()’ Function
- New ‘fsync()’ and ‘fdatasync()’ Functions
- Array Unpacking Support for String-Keyed Arrays
- New ‘full_path’ Key in ‘$_FILES’ for Directory Uploads
- New ‘IntlDatePatternGenerator’ Class
1. Enumerations
PHP 8.1 adds support for Enumerations, also called enum. It is an itemized type that holds a fixed number of possible values. Refer to the following code snippet to understand how you can use enumeration.
2. Fibers
PHP 8.1 adds support for Fibers, a low-level component, which allows performing concurrent code execution in PHP. Fiber is a code block that contains its own stack of variables and states. These Fibers can be considered as application threads and can be started from the main program. Once started, the main program won’t be able to suspend or terminate the Fiber. It can only be suspended or terminated from inside the Fiber code block. After the Fiber gets suspended, the control again goes back to the main program, and it can continue executing the Fiber from the point it was suspended.
Fiber by itself does not allow simultaneous execution of multiple Fibers or the main thread and a Fiber. However, it is a huge advantage for PHP frameworks to efficiently manage the execution stack and allow asynchronous execution.
Refer to the following code snippet to understand how you can use Fibers.
3. The ‘never’ Return Type
PHP 8.1 adds support for a new return type called never. The never type can be used to indicate that a function will terminate the program execution after performing a specified set of tasks. This can be done either by throwing an exception, calling the exit() or die() functions.
The never return type is similar to the void return type. However, the void return type continues the execution after the function completes a specified set of tasks.
Refer to the following code snippet to understand how you can use the never return type.
4. The ‘readonly’ Property
PHP 8.1 adds support for a new class property called readonly. A class property that has been declared as read-only can only be initialized once. The value set inside can’t be changed. If you try to update the value forcibly, the application will throw an error. Refer to the following code snippet to understand how you can use the read-only property.
5. Final Class Constants
PHP 8.1 adds support for a new flag for the class constants called final. The final class constants can’t be modified, even by performing inheritance, which means these can’t be extended or overridden by the subclasses.
This flag can’t be used for a private constant, because it can’t be accessed outside the class. Declaring both final and private constants will result in a fatal error.
Refer to the following code snippet to understand how you can use the final flag.
6. New ‘array_is_list()’ Function
PHP 8.1 adds support for a new array function called array_is_list(). It identifies whether a specified array has all sequential integers starting from 0. This function returns true if the array is a semantic list of values (an array whose keys start from 0, are all integers, and with no gaps in between). It also returns true for empty arrays. Refer to the following code snippet to understand how you can use the array_is_list() function.
An array whose keys don’t start from zero, or whose keys are not integers, or whose keys are integers, but not present in sequential order will evaluate to false.
7. New ‘fsync()’ and ‘fdatasync()’ Functions
PHP 8.1 adds support for the fsync() and fdatasync() functions. Both have similarities to the existing fflush() function, which is currently used to flush buffers into the operating system. However, the fsync() and fdatasync() flush the buffer to the physical storage. The only difference between them is that the fsync() function includes metadata when synchronizing files changes, while the fdatasync() function doesn’t.
The fsync() function will take a file pointer and attempt to commit changes to the disk. It will return true on success, false on failure, and will raise a warning if the resource is not a file. The fdatasync() function works in the same way, but is a bit faster, as fsync() will attempt to fully synchronize both the file’s data changes and metadata about the file (last modified time, etc.), which is technically two disk writes.
Refer to the following code snippet to understand how you can use the fsync() and fdatasync() functions.
8. Array Unpacking Support for String-Keyed Arrays
PHP 8.1 adds support to unpack the string-keyed arrays. To unpack an array, PHP uses a spread (…) operator. This operator has been introduced with PHP 7.4 to merge two or more arrays, but with a much cleaner syntax. But prior to PHP 8.1, the spread operator only supported arrays with numeric keys. Refer to the following code snippet to understand how you can use the spread operator for string-keyed arrays.
9. New ‘full_path’ Key in ‘$_FILES’ for Directory Uploads
PHP 8.1 adds support for a new full_path key in the $_FILES global variable. Prior to PHP 8.1, $_FILES didn’t store the relative paths or the exact directory to the server. Hence, you were not able to upload an entire directory using an HTML file upload form. The new full_path key solves this problem. It stores the relative paths and reconstructs the exact directory structure on the server, making directory uploads possible. Refer to the following code snippet to understand how you can use the full_path key with the $_FILES global variable.
10. New ‘IntlDatePatternGenerator’ Class
PHP 8.1 adds support for a new IntlDatePatternGenerator class. Prior to PHP 8.1, it was possible to create a localized date and time only with the IntlDateFormatter. It supports eight pre-defined formats that use yesterday, today, and tomorrow. But these formats are not as customizable as provided by IntlDatePatternGenerator. This class allows specifying the format for a date, month, and time, and the order will be automatically taken care of by the class. Refer to the following code snippet to understand how you can use the IntlDatePatternGenerator class.
Kudos! You have completed learning the features offered by PHP 8.1. Now you can go ahead and start implementing the above features in your current or upcoming projects.
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Top 10 PHP 8.1 Features You Should Start Using Now was originally published in Level Up Coding on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
This content originally appeared on Level Up Coding - Medium and was authored by Tara Prasad Routray
Tara Prasad Routray | Sciencx (2021-12-06T03:52:28+00:00) Top 10 PHP 8.1 Features You Should Start Using Now. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2021/12/06/top-10-php-8-1-features-you-should-start-using-now/
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