🚀 𝗣𝗛𝗣 𝟴.𝟰 𝗶𝘀 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲: 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗘𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘀!

Published at

12/28/2024

🔹 Property Hooks

Eliminate boilerplate getters and setters! Customize property access behavior directly in your classes.

class User
{
    private string $hashedPassword;

    public string $password
    {
        get => '***'; // Masked password for display
        set (string $plainPassword) {
            $this->hashedPassword = password_hash($plainPassword, PASSWORD_DEFAULT); // Hash the password
        }
    }

    public function verifyPassword(string $plainPassword): bool
    {
        return password_verify($plainPassword, $this->hashedPassword);
    }
}

// Example usage
$user = new User();

// Set the password
$user->password = 'secure123';

// Access the password (masked)
echo $user->password; // Output: ***

// Verify the password
var_dump($user->verifyPassword('secure123')); // bool(true)
var_dump($user->verifyPassword('wrongpassword')); // bool(false)

🔹 Asymmetric Visibility

Control reading and writing access with different visibility levels for properties.

class BankAccount {
    public function __construct(
        public readonly float $balance = 0.0
    ) {}

    private function setBalance(float $amount): void {
        // Business logic for updating the balance
    }
}

$account = new BankAccount(100.0);
echo $account->balance; // Public for reading
// $account->balance = 200.0; // Error: Cannot modify (private for writing)

🔹 New Array Find Functions

Work smarter with arrays using new utility functions like array_find and array_all.

$users = [
    ['id' => 1, 'name' => 'Alice'],
    ['id' => 2, 'name' => 'Bob'],
];

$user = array_find($users, fn($user) => $user['name'] === 'Bob');
print_r($user); // Output: ['id' => 2, 'name' => 'Bob']

$isAllAdults = array_all($users, fn($user) => $user['age'] >= 18);

🔹 Class Instantiation Without Extra Parentheses

Chain methods or access properties seamlessly without redundant parentheses.

class Task {
    public function status(): string {
        return 'Completed';
    }
}

echo (new Task)->status(); // Output: Completed

🔹 HTML5 DOM Parser

The DOM parser now fully supports HTML5, improving web compatibility.

$dom = new DOMDocument();
$dom->loadHTML('<!DOCTYPE html><html><body><div>Hello</div></body></html>');
echo $dom->saveHTML(); // Parses HTML5 content properly

🔹 Deprecations

Stay ahead of breaking changes:

Implicit nullable types are deprecated.
Session usage via GET/POST has been deprecated.

💡 Why It Matters:

PHP 8.4 empowers developers to write cleaner, more efficient, and modern code. Whether you're building web applications, APIs, or anything in between, these features make development more enjoyable.

👉 Which feature excites you the most? Let’s discuss in the comments!