What are the new features of PHP 8?

PHP 8.0 was a big release. It added many features that make code shorter and safer. Here are the main ones that are asked in interviews.

• Named arguments: pass values by parameter name, for example new User(name: "Robin").
• Constructor property promotion: declare and set properties in the constructor line.
• Match expression: a stricter and shorter version of switch. See PHP match Expression.
• Nullsafe operator (?->): stops the chain if the value is null.
• Union types: a parameter or return can have more than one type, like int|string.
• Attributes: add metadata to classes and methods using the #[...] syntax.
• JIT compiler: can make some heavy calculations faster.
• New functions: str_contains(), str_starts_with() and str_ends_with().

<?php
class User {
    public function __construct(public string $name, public ?string $city = null) {}
}

$user = new User(name: "Robin");   // named argument

echo $user->name . "<br>";
echo ($user?->city ?? "City not given") . "<br>";   // nullsafe operator
echo str_contains("Tutorials Class", "Class") ? "Found" : "Not found";
?>

Output:

Later versions added more, for example enums and readonly properties in PHP 8.1. Always check the version of PHP on your server before using a new feature.

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