Since the release of Php 8 on 26th November 2020, we have been doing thorough research on the new improvements and features it has to offer. Being one of the trusted Php development companies, this news was really exciting for us. After analyzing the new Php 8, we decided to bring forth this article displaying all the cool features it introduced along with the improvements it has to offer.
There is no question that this new update has brought to the Php developer a whole new set of powerful features that makes the coding more exciting and powerful. This update, hands down, has brought several changes to the developers right from speeding up the website to adding on new attributes as well as functions for the Php developers to enjoy.
Every update brings something cool and in this piece, you will get to know what Php 8.0 version has that will blow your mind off.
Let’s get to some of the interesting new additions this new Php 8 update has brought into play.
JIT (Just In Time) Compiler
The major highlight of this new update Php 8.0 has been the JIT compiler. Php is one of the interpreted languages, meaning – it is the language that runs in real-time instead of being compiled before the launch. With the introduction of JIT, Php 8.0 update has brought compile code to play. With this comes the increased flexibility for Php developers to play around with the language.
This will not only increase the efficiency of Php development companies & developers but will also result in better performance.
In simple words,
If you are working on 3D rendering, artificial intelligence, or 3D rendering, this JIT compiler will prove to be a great asset. However, if you are working on web app development, this will not change much for you.
This is one of the most talked-about addition Php 8 has to offer and for a good reason.
Match Expressions | A Good Update to Switch Statements
If you are a Php developer, you must be aware of the switch statements. Considering them to be a powerful version of if statements, this new update has introduced a new improved, shorter, strict Match Expressions. Not just this, these statements don’t need a break statement like switch statements.
While it is all good, still switch statement holds the ground when it comes to using multiple expressions.
For example –
switch (1) {
case 0:
$result = ‘Foo’;
break;
case 1:
$result = ‘Bar’;
break;
case 2:
$result = ‘Baz’;
break;
}
echo $result;
//> Bar
With the new “match” expression, you can get the same results as above with the code below –
echo match (1) {
0 => ‘Foo’,
1 => ‘Bar’,
2 => ‘Baz’,
};
//> Bar
New Features Introduced in Php 8.0 You Must Know About
Every update brings a new function to play. In this Php 8.0 also we have a few new functions to note. Let’s talk about them one by one –
Str_contains Function
In the previous version of Php, when developers wanted to search for a needle inside a string, they had two options – strstr & strpos. The problem with the two was – they are not considered to be intuitive and are a bit confusing for new Php developers.
For example –
$mystring = ‘Managed WordPress Hosting’;
$findme = ‘WordPress’;
$pos = strpos($mystring, $findme);
if ($pos !== false) {
echo “The string has been found”;
} else {
echo “String not found”;
}
In this code, a developer is comparing the two values and checking if they are of the same type or not. This function “!==” may return a Boolean FALSE but may also conclude a non-Boolean value that evaluates to FALSE, creating a problem.
Hence, to resolve the issue, the new Php 8 has introduced a new feature – str_contains. The usage of this function is pretty straight forward and so are the results.
For instance –
$mystring = ‘Managed WordPress Hosting’;
$findme = ‘WordPress’;
if (str_contains($mystring, $findme)) {
echo “The string has been found”;
} else {
echo “String not found”;
}
Get_debug_type function
This is another function that is introduced in the new Php 8.0. This new feature is used to return the type of variable. Its purpose is quite close to the “gettype” function. This being said, the difference however is that “get_debug_type” returns native type names & resolves class names, unlike “gettype” function.
Some other functions introduced in Php 8.0 are –
fdiv – This allows division that consistently reacts when dividing by zero.
preg_last_error_msg – This is the function introduced in Php 8 to check for errors. This function returns a human-readable error message.
Nullsafe Operator
The new version of Php – Php 8 introduced a null safe operator $-> with full short circuit evaluation.
In this short-circuit evaluation, the second operator is evaluated only if the 1st one does not evaluate to null but if an operator in the chain is evaluated to null the execution of the complete chain stops.
$foo = $a?->b();
For instance, in the above code, if $a is null, method b is not called and $foo evaluates to null.
Our Developer’s Corner
Unlike the previous versions of Php where the developers, because of the restrictions the language has bounds them to write the best code. Although it is upto the writer to develop, still language plays a vital role. Php 8 has brought several new improvements for the developers to explore and improve their code. This is the same reason why TypeScript is taking over JavaScript nowadays. Also, there is no doubt that Php is one of the best languages when it comes to website development. All the improved features & improvements introduced in Php 8 has also improved the possibility of writing even strong codes.
Conclusion
To conclude, these are some of the new features that we found useful while analyzing the new Php 8.0 update. There are many more to discuss that we will keep adding on now and then. With every update comes the precision that was lacking in the previous ones and therefore, it becomes vital for the Php developers or Php development companies to keep a track of changes being introduced in the new update.
In short, this update contains many important features that you will want to explore like the JIT compiler that brings flexibility to the language.
By far, we have noticed that this Php update is quite light on the major backward-incompatible features.
Every change is good in its own way, the fundamental rule of development is to embrace the change and enhance the skill set accordingly.
We hope you found this piece helpful and will stay tuned for more cool updates.
