PHP 8.0 Highlights

Named Arguments 

  function createUser(string $name, string $email, bool $active = true) { /* ... */ }

createUser(email: '[email protected]', name: 'Alice');

Constructor Property Promotion 

  class User {
    public function __construct(
        public string $name,
        public string $email,
        private int $id = 0,
    ) {}
}

Match Expression 

  $result = match ($status) {
    'draft'   => 'Draft',
    'published' => 'Published',
    default   => 'Unknown',
};

Union and Mixed Types 

  function process(int|string $id): array|null { /* ... */ }

Attributes (Annotations) 

  #[Route('/api/users', methods: ['GET'])]
class UserController { /* ... */ }

Nullsafe Operator 

  $country = $user?->getAddress()?->getCountry();

PHP 8.1

Enums 

  enum Status: string {
    case Draft = 'draft';
    case Published = 'published';

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

Readonly Properties 

  class Point {
    public function __construct(
        public readonly float $x,
        public readonly float $y,
    ) {}
}

First-class Callable Syntax 

  $fn = strlen(...);
echo $fn('hello'); // 5

PHP 8.2

Readonly Classes 

  readonly class Config {
    public function __construct(
        public string $host,
        public int $port,
    ) {}
}

Disjunctive Normal Form (DNF) Types 

  function process((A&B)|null $input): void { /* ... */ }

PHP 8.3

Typed Class Constants 

  class Api {
    public const string VERSION = '1.0';
}

json_validate() 

  if (json_validate($jsonString)) {
    $data = json_decode($jsonString, true);
}

Fibers (PHP 8.1)

Lightweight concurrency for I/O-bound tasks:

  $fiber = new Fiber(function (): void {
    $result = someAsyncOperation();
    Fiber::suspend($result);
});
$fiber->start();

Frameworks like Revolt and Amp build on fibers for async PHP.

Migration Tips

  1. Run PHPStan or Psalm for static analysis before upgrading
  2. Test with the new version in CI
  3. Check deprecated features in the PHP migration guide
  4. Enable strict types: declare(strict_types=1);

Modern PHP is a capable, typed language — these features bring it closer to Java and TypeScript in expressiveness.