PHP 7.0 getting closer to release: PHP 7 Coolest Feature

PHP 7.0 getting closer to release: PHP 7 Coolest Feature

The PHP development team recently announced the availability of PHP 7.0.0 RC 2 – the seventh pre-release of the new PHP 7 major series. The final version is expected in October 2015.

Also Check: 5+ Advanced PHP Tips To Improve Your Programming

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PHP 7.0 provides new language features, and promises users twice the performance of PHP 5 by basing it on the PHPNG project (PHP Next-Gen). “The performance gains realised from PHP 7 vary between 25% and 70% on real-world apps, and all of that just from upgrading PHP, without having to change a single line of code,” said PHP developers Zend.

PHP 7 will also allow developers to declare what kind of return type a function is expected to have – similar to argument Type Hints. PHP 7 also comes with new version of the Zend Engine, with features such as consistent 64-bit support, removal of old and unsupported SAPIs and extensions, and a combined comparison Operator (<=>).              

Let’s learn more about these PHP 7 features:

1. The problem of Return Types would come to an end

With the release of PHP 7, you’ll now be able to indicate appropriate return types on functions in the form displayed below:

function foo(): array {

return [];

}

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2. The all-new Combined Comparison Operator
 
Also known as the spaceship operator, the Combined Comparison Operator <=> serves as a brilliant addition to PHP. It works just like strcmp() or the version_compare() functions returning -1 in case the left operand is smaller than the right one, 1 in case the left is greater than the right one and 0 in case both are equal. One of the greatest advantages of Combined Comparison operator is that it can be conveniently used any two operands(floats, integers, arrays etc.) and not just the strings. Have a look at how the Combined Comparison Operator is used in sorting callbacks: 

// Pre Spacefaring^W PHP 7

function order_func($x, $y) {

return ($x < $y) ? -1 : (($x > $y) ? 1 : 0);

}



// Post PHP 7

function order_func($x, $y) {

return $x <=> $y;

}

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3. Commendable performance improvements

With key changes being introduced as phpng, PHP 7 will have its performance raised by great bounds and leaps. A majority of smaller hosts would benefit from this increased performance and adopt PHP 7 without giving a second thought. It is expected that PHP 7 will have its performance at par with Facebook HHVM. The only exception being that PHP 7 won’t have a JIT(Just In Time) compiler. Additionally, this new PHP version would also have substantial memory savings.

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4. Changes in terms of Extension APIs

Although the API used for building PHP extensions is still under the refurbishing process, it is subjected to multiple changes. The all new extension API introduced with PHP 7 would be compatible with HHVM run-time as well.

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5. Addition of Abstract Syntax Tree(AST)

As an attempt to bring in the must-needed userland consistency, the PHP web development community has planned to add Abstract Syntax Tree(AST) into the PHP version 7. Serving as an intermediate code representation tool, AST would allow you to eliminate some of the visible inconsistencies in addition to creating room for incredible tooling such as the usage of AST for creating absolutely stunning opcodes.

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6. Introduction of Uniform Variable Syntax

Uniform Variable Syntax plays a pivotal role in solving multiple inconsistencies in the way different expressions are being evaluated. For instance, here is how you can call closures which are already assigned to properties with the help of.

$object->closureProperty) ():

class foo { static $bar = 'woo'; }

class woo { static $bat = 'Features of PHP7'; }

woo::$bat = function () { echo "Features of PHP7"; };

$exp = 'foo';

($exp::$bar::$bat)();