Any number of function parameters may now be replaced by a variadic argument, as long as the
types are compatible. For example, the following code is now allowed:
<?php
class A {
public function method(int $many, string $parameters, $here) {}
}
class B extends A {
public function method(...$everything) {}
}
?>
static (as in "late static binding") can now be used as a return type:
<?php
class Test {
public function create(): static {
return new static();
}
}
?>
It is now possible to fetch the class name of an object using
$object::class. The result is the same as get_class($object).
new and instanceof can now be used with arbitrary expressions,
using new (expression)(...$args) and $obj instanceof (expression).
Some consistency fixes to variable syntax have been applied, for example writing
Foo::BAR::$baz is now allowed.
Added Stringable interface, which is automatically implemented if
a class defines a __toString() method.
Traits can now define abstract private methods.
Such methods must be implemented by the class using the trait.
throw can now be used as an expression.
That allows usages like:
<?php
$fn = fn() => throw new Exception('Exception in arrow function');
$user = $session->user ?? throw new Exception('Must have user');
An optional trailing comma is now allowed in parameter lists.
<?php
function functionWithLongSignature(
Type1 $parameter1,
Type2 $parameter2, // <-- This comma is now allowed.
) {
}
It is now possible to write catch (Exception) to catch an exception without storing
it in a variable.
Private methods declared on a parent class no longer enforce any inheritance rules on the methods
of a child class (with the exception of final private constructors).
The following example illustrates which restrictions have been removed:
<?php
class ParentClass {
private function method1() {}
private function method2() {}
private static function method3() {}
// Throws a warning, as "final" no longer has an effect:
private final function method4() {}
}
class ChildClass extends ParentClass {
// All of the following are now allowed, even though the modifiers aren't
// the same as for the private methods in the parent class.
public abstract function method1() {}
public static function method2() {}
public function method3() {}
public function method4() {}
}
?>
get_resource_id() has been added, which returns the same value as
(int) $resource. It provides the same functionality under a clearer API.
Added a new option pm.status_listen that allows getting the status from
different endpoint (e.g. port or UDS file) which is useful for getting the status when all
children are busy with serving long running requests.
ldap_count_references() has been added, which returns the number
of reference messages in a search result.
OPcache
If the opcache.record_warnings ini setting is
enabled, OPcache will record compile-time warnings and replay them on the next include, even if
it is served from cache.
OpenSSL
Added Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS) (» RFC 5652)
support composed of functions for encryption, decryption, signing, verifying and reading. The API
is similar to the API for PKCS #7 functions with an addition of new encoding constants:
OPENSSL_ENCODING_DER, OPENSSL_ENCODING_SMIME
and OPENSSL_ENCODING_PEM:
openssl_cms_encrypt() encrypts the message in the file with the certificates
and outputs the result to the supplied file.
openssl_cms_decrypt() that decrypts the S/MIME message in the file and outputs
the results to the supplied file.
openssl_cms_read() that exports the CMS file to an array
of PEM certificates.
openssl_cms_sign() that signs the MIME message in the file with a cert and key
and output the result to the supplied file.
openssl_cms_verify() that verifies that the data block is intact, the signer
is who they say they are, and returns the certs of the signers.
Regular Expressions (Perl-Compatible)
preg_last_error_msg() has been added, which returns a human-readable message for the last
PCRE error. It complements preg_last_error(), which returns an integer enum value
instead.
Reflection
The following methods can now return information about default values of
parameters of internal functions:
SQLite3::setAuthorizer() and respective class constants have been added
to set a userland callback that will be used to authorize or not an action on the database.
fdiv() has been added, which performs a floating-point division under IEEE 754 semantics.
Division by zero is considered well-defined and will return one of Inf,
-Inf or NaN.
get_debug_type() has been added, which returns a type useful for error messages. Unlike
gettype(), it uses canonical type names, returns class names for objects, and
indicates the resource type for resources.
printf() and friends now support the %h and
%H format specifiers. These are the same as %g and
%G, but always use "." as the decimal separator, rather
than determining it through the LC_NUMERIC locale.
printf() and friends now support using "*" as width or
precision, in which case the width/precision is passed as an argument to printf. This also allows
using precision -1 with %g, %G,
%h and %H. For example, the following code can be used to
reproduce PHP's default floating point formatting:
Unlike pipes, sockets do not suffer from blocking I/O issues on Windows. However, not all
programs may work correctly with stdio sockets.
Sorting functions are now stable, which means that equal-comparing elements will retain their
original order.
array_diff(), array_intersect() and their variations can
now be used with a single array as argument. This means that usages like the following are now
possible:
<?php
// OK even if $excludes is empty:
array_diff($array, ...$excludes);
// OK even if $arrays only contains a single array:
array_intersect(...$arrays);
?>
PhpToken adds an object-based interface to the tokenizer. It provides a
more uniform and ergonomic representation, while being more memory efficient and faster.
Zip
The Zip extension has been updated to version 1.19.1.
The ZipArchive::lastId property to get the index value of
the last added entry has been added.
Errors can now be checked after an archive has been closed using the
ZipArchive::status and
ZipArchive::statusSys properties, or the
ZipArchive::getStatusString() method.
The 'remove_path' option of ZipArchive::addGlob() and
ZipArchive::addPattern() is now treated as an arbitrary string prefix (for
consistency with the 'add_path' option), whereas formerly it was treated as a
directory name.
Optional compression / encryption features are now listed in phpinfo.
Migrating from PHP 7.4.x to PHP 8.0.x
Migrating from PHP 7.4.x to PHP 8.0.x