PHP 7 – What’s new ?

PHP 7 – What’s new ?

With the release of PHP 7, it has become an active debate that what’s new in it. So, folks just to let you know PHP is getting into the big league now. This release is far better in functionality and performance compared to the previous versions. Obviously, there are many updates and enhancements but we will cover few which we think have greater significance.

Twice The Speed

With addition of PHPNG engine, your applications can run 2x faster compared to older versions of PHP. By using PHP 7, not only your code will be executed faster but it will also reduce the amount of servers needed to server the same amount of users.

Error Handling

If you have been coding in PHP, you know it’s not that easy handling fatal & catch-able fatal errors. PHP 7 introduces Engine Exception that’ll cover all these fatal errors so you can handle them easily now.

Accurate Type Declarations

Have you had a hard time searching for how to set a return type for a function to avoid unintended values?
PHP 7 solves this problem by provide ability to define a return type for a function to improve the code quality.

Anonymous Class

Anonymous Classes has been an established practice in other Object Oriented Languages like Java and C#. PHP 7 adds this functionality which is understood to improve the performance and execution time.

Group Use Declarations

Importing classes from same namespace is easier now. With improve syntax in PHP 7, using Group Use Declaration, You can define all the classes from a same namespace in a single line. It will also help to improve the readability of the code.

Spaceship Operator

It’s a good addition to the existing set of operators. With a notation like <=>, It makes the comparison more easier and fluent. This three-way operator returns 0 if both operands are equal, 1 if the left is greater, and -1 if the right is greater.

Null Coalescing operator

You know handling NULL is a big problem and you have to be extra cautious about variables in PHP. NULL Coalescing operator (??) checks a variable and if it’s NULL, it provides the default value.