PHP 8.2 New Features and Improvements – All You Need to Know

PHP 8.2 is the latest version of the popular server-side scripting language, PHP. It was released in November 2022. The new release includes several new features and improvements to existing functionality. Some important features are System Improvements, Sensitive Parameter Attributes, Fetch enum properties in constant expressions, Constants supported in traits, Readonly Classes, and Random Extension. The main improvement is related to several performance issues. Such as faster type checks and better JIT (just-in-time) compilation. This can lead to faster execution times for PHP applications. We will take a look at PHP 8.2 features in the very detail in this post.

PHP 8.2 Features and Improvements

PHP 8.2 features include several new functions and improvements to existing functions. For example, there are new functions for working with timestamps and dates, such as “strtotime_relative()” and “date_is_leap_year()“. Additionally, the “preg_replace_callback_array()” function now supports a callback that can be used to modify the match. We will discuss some of the important features and improvements one by one.

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Prerequisites

For executing examples in this post, I will be using PHP 8.2. Therefore, you will need the PHP 8.2 version to move ahead with this post.

• PHP 8.2

Now, Let’s continue with this post.

1. Improved Error Handling

PHP 8.2 includes several improvements to its error-handling system. For example, there is a new “never” return type, which can be used to indicate that a function will never return. Additionally, there is a new “unreachable” statement, which can be used to indicate that a certain code path will never be reached.

2. Type System Improvements

• In PHP 8, we have the mixed type feature that is equivalent to the union type in which we can define multiple data types. Ex. object|resource|array|string|int|float|bool|null.
• Then in PHP 8.1, we got another feature named Intersection types. It allows declaring a type for a parameter, property, or return type and enforcing that values belong to all declared class/interface types. This is totally the opposite of the union type.
• PHP 8.2 adds support for true, null, and false as stand-alone types. Prior to PHP 8.2, It was only possible to use null and false as parts of Union Types.

We can use null or false types as standalone types without being part of a union type from PHP 8.2. Just take a look at the below example.

<?php
  
   function isValid(): false {
      echo 'Yes';
      return false;
   }
   
   isCompleted();

If you will run the above snippet, you will get the below result.

If you will try to run in. PHP 8.1, then it will throw an exception as I already said this is a part of PHP 8.2.

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3. Constants in Traits

In PHP 8.2, it is now possible to define constants directly in traits. This allows you to group related constants together in a trait. You can make your code more organized and easier to maintain.

Let’s take a look at the below example of using constants in Traits.

trait MyTrait {
    public const MY_CONSTANT = 'some value';
    
    public function myMethod() {
        // use the constant here
        echo self::MY_CONSTANT;
    }
}

class MyClass {
    use MyTrait;
}

$obj = new MyClass();
$obj->myMethod(); // outputs 'some value'

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4. Readonly Classes

PHP 8.1 introduced the concept of readonly properties. Which allows you to define class properties that can only be set once during construction and then become read-only.

PHP 8.2 introduced the concept of readonly classes. Which takes the concept of readonly properties a step further by allowing you to define entire classes as read-only. A readonly class can only have readonly properties and readonly methods. This means that all of its state is fixed at construction time and cannot be modified later.

To define a readonly class in PHP 8.2, you can use the readonly keyword before the class keyword, as shown below.

readonly class MyClass {
  public readonly string $name;
  public readonly int $age;

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

  public function sayHello(): string {
    return "Hello, my name is {$this->name} and I'm {$this->age} years old.";
  }
}

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5. Fetch enum Properties in const Expressions

In PHP 8.2, you can now fetch the values of enumeration properties in constant expressions. This allows you to use enumeration properties in a wider variety of situations. Such as when defining constant values for use in other parts of your code.

enum MyEnum {
  case ONE = 1;
  case TWO = self::ONE * 2;
}

const MY_CONSTANT = MyEnum::TWO;

6. Random Extensions

PHP 8.2 did introduce several improvements and enhancements to the existing random extension. Here are some of the notable improvements:

1. random_int() – This function throws an exception if the underlying random number generator fails, instead of returning false. This makes it easier to handle errors in random number generation.
2. random_bytes() – It supports the libsodium extension, which provides a more secure random number generator than the default generator used by PHP.
3. random_bytes() – This has a new $raw_output the parameter that allows you to generate raw binary output instead of the default hexadecimal output. This can be useful when generating random keys or nonces for cryptographic purposes.
4. random_int() – This function has a new $min parameter that allows you to specify the minimum value for the generated random integer. This makes it easier to generate random integers in a specific range.
5. random_bytes() – This has a new $length parameter that allows you to specify the length of the generated random byte string.

Overall, these improvements make the PHP random extension more secure and flexible. Also, provide better error handling and control over the generated random values. If you need to generate random data in your PHP applications, it’s recommended to use the functions provided by the random extension.

Final Words

In this post, we discussed some important features and improvements in PHP 8.2 release. Few of the functions are deprecated. However, few are improved in terms of functionality and performance. I hope this post will guide you through going deep into PHP 8.2.