php

PHP Development

Modern PHP 8.x development patterns and best practices.

PHP 8.x Features Constructor Property Promotion // Before PHP 8 class User { private string $name; private int $age;

public function __construct(string $name, int $age) {
    $this->name = $name;
    $this->age = $age;
}

}

// PHP 8+ class User { public function __construct( private string $name, private int $age, private bool $active = true ) {} }

Named Arguments function createUser(string $name, string $email, bool $admin = false): User { // ... }

// Named arguments (order doesn't matter) createUser(email: 'john@example.com', name: 'John', admin: true);

Match Expression // BAD: Switch with many breaks switch ($status) { case 'pending': $color = 'yellow'; break; case 'approved': $color = 'green'; break; default: $color = 'gray'; }

// GOOD: Match expression $color = match($status) { 'pending' => 'yellow', 'approved', 'published' => 'green', 'rejected' => 'red', default => 'gray', };

Null Safe Operator // Before $country = null; if ($user !== null && $user->getAddress() !== null) { $country = $user->getAddress()->getCountry(); }

// PHP 8+ $country = $user?->getAddress()?->getCountry();

Union Types & Intersection Types // Union types function process(int|float|string $value): int|float { return is_string($value) ? strlen($value) : $value * 2; }

// Intersection types (PHP 8.1+) function save(Countable&Iterator $items): void { foreach ($items as $item) { // ... } }

Enums (PHP 8.1+) enum Status: string { case Draft = 'draft'; case Published = 'published'; case Archived = 'archived';

public function label(): string {
    return match($this) {
        self::Draft => 'Draft',
        self::Published => 'Published',
        self::Archived => 'Archived',
    };
}

public function color(): string {
    return match($this) {
        self::Draft => 'gray',
        self::Published => 'green',
        self::Archived => 'red',
    };
}

}

// Usage $post->status = Status::Published; echo $post->status->label(); // "Published"

Readonly Properties (PHP 8.1+) class User { public function __construct( public readonly int $id, public readonly string $email, private string $password ) {} }

$user = new User(1, 'john@example.com', 'hashed'); $user->id = 2; // Error: Cannot modify readonly property

Type Safety Strict Types