Book Image

PHP 8 Programming Tips, Tricks and Best Practices

By : Doug Bierer
Book Image

PHP 8 Programming Tips, Tricks and Best Practices

By: Doug Bierer

Overview of this book

Thanks to its ease of use, PHP is a highly popular programming language used on over 78% of all web servers connected to the Internet. PHP 8 Programming Tips, Tricks, and Best Practices will help you to get up-to-speed with PHP 8 quickly. The book is intended for any PHP developer who wants to become familiar with the cool new features available in PHP 8, and covers areas where developers might experience backward compatibility issues with their existing code after a PHP 8 update. The book thoroughly explores best practices, and highlights ways in which PHP 8 enforces these practices in a much more rigorous fashion than its earlier versions. You'll start by exploring new PHP 8 features in the area of object-oriented programming (OOP), followed by enhancements at the procedural level. You'll then learn about potential backward compatible breaks and discover best practices for improving performance. The last chapter of the book gives you insights into PHP async, a revolutionary new way of programming, by providing detailed coverage and examples of asynchronous programming using the Swoole extension and Fibers. By the end of this PHP book, you'll not only have mastered the new features, but you'll also know exactly what to watch out for when migrating older PHP applications to PHP 8.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
1
Section 1: PHP 8 Tips
6
Section 2: PHP 8 Tricks
11
Section 3: PHP 8 Best Practices

Understanding uniform variable syntax

One of the most radical initiatives introduced in PHP 7.0 was an effort at normalizing PHP syntax. The problem with earlier versions of PHP was that in some cases operations were parsed from left to right, whereas in other cases this was done from right to left. This inconsistency was the root cause of any of a number of programming vulnerabilities and difficulties. As a result, an initiative known as uniform variable syntax was launched by the PHP core development team. But first, let's define key points that form the uniform variable syntax initiative.

Defining uniform variable syntax

Uniform variable syntax is neither a protocol nor a formal language construct. Rather, it is a guiding principle that strives to ensure all operations are performed in a uniform and consistent manner.

Here are some key points from this initiative:

  • Uniformity in the order and referencing of variables
  • Uniformity in function calls
  • Straightening...