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PHP 8.3 is a major update of the PHP language.

It contains many new features, such as explicit typing of class constants, deep- cloning of readonly properties and additions to the randomness functionality. As always it also includes performance improvements, bug fixes, and general cleanup.

Upgrade to PHP 8.3 now!

Typed class constants

PHP < 8.3
interfaceI{
// We may naively assume that the PHP constant is always a string.
constPHP='PHP 8.2';
}

classFooimplementsI{
// But implementing classes may define it as an array.
constPHP=[];
}
PHP 8.3
interfaceI{
conststring PHP='PHP 8.2';
}

classFooimplementsI{
conststring PHP=[];
}
// Fatal error: Cannot use array as value for class constant
// Foo::PHP of type string

Dynamic class constant fetch

PHP < 8.3
classFoo{
constPHP='PHP 8.2';
}

$searchableConstant='PHP';

var_dump(constant(Foo::class . "::{$searchableConstant}"));
PHP 8.3
classFoo{
constPHP='PHP 8.3';
}

$searchableConstant='PHP';

var_dump(Foo::{$searchableConstant});

New #[Override] attribute

PHP < 8.3
usePHPUnit\Framework\TestCase;

final classMyTestextendsTestCase{
protected$logFile;

protected functionsetUp():void{
$this->logFile=fopen('/tmp/logfile','w');
}

protected functiontaerDown():void{
fclose($this->logFile);
unlink('/tmp/logfile');
}
}

// The log file will never be removed, because the
// method name was mistyped (taerDown vs tearDown).
PHP 8.3
usePHPUnit\Framework\TestCase;

final classMyTestextendsTestCase{
protected$logFile;

protected functionsetUp():void{
$this->logFile=fopen('/tmp/logfile','w');
}

#[\Override]
protected functiontaerDown():void{
fclose($this->logFile);
unlink('/tmp/logfile');
}
}

// The log file will never be removed, because the
// method name was mistyped (taerDown vs tearDown).

By adding the #[Override] attribute to a method, PHP will ensure that a method with the same name exists in a parent class or in an implemented interface. Adding the attribute makes it clear that overriding a parent method is intentional and simplifies refactoring, because the removal of an overridden parent method will be detected.

Deep-cloning of readonly properties

PHP < 8.3
classPHP{
publicstring $version='8.2';
}

readonly classFoo{
public function__construct(
publicPHP $php
) {}

public function__clone():void{
$this->php= clone$this->php;
}
}

$instance= newFoo(newPHP());
$cloned= clone$instance;

// Fatal error: Cannot modify readonly property Foo::$php
PHP 8.3
classPHP{
publicstring $version='8.2';
}

readonly classFoo{
public function__construct(
publicPHP $php
) {}

public function__clone():void{
$this->php= clone$this->php;
}
}

$instance= newFoo(newPHP());
$cloned= clone$instance;

$cloned->php->version='8.3';

readonly properties may now be modified once within the magic __clone method to enable deep-cloning of readonly properties.

New json_validate() function

PHP < 8.3
functionjson_validate(string $string):bool{
json_decode($string);

returnjson_last_error() ===JSON_ERROR_NONE;
}

var_dump(json_validate('{ "test": { "foo": "bar" }
}'));// true
PHP 8.3
var_dump(json_validate('{ "test": { "foo": "bar" }
}')); // true

json_validate() allows to check if a string is syntactically valid JSON, while being more efficient than json_decode().

New Randomizer::getBytesFromString() method

PHP < 8.3
// This function needs to be manually implemented.
functiongetBytesFromString(string $string,int$length) {
$stringLength=strlen($string);

$result='';
for ($i=0;$i<$length;$i++) {
// random_int is not seedable for testing, but secure.
$result.=$string[random_int(0,$stringLength-1)];
}

return$result;
}

$randomDomain=sprintf(
"%s.example.com",
getBytesFromString(
'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789',
16,
),
);

echo$randomDomain;
PHP 8.3
// A \Random\Engine may be passed for seeding,
// the default is the secure engine.
$randomizer= new\Random\Randomizer();

$randomDomain=sprintf(
"%s.example.com",
$randomizer->getBytesFromString(
'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789',
16,
),
);

echo$randomDomain;

The Random Extension that was added in PHP 8.2 was extended by a new method to generate random strings consisting of specific bytes only. This method allows the developer to easily generate random identifiers, such as domain names, and numeric strings of arbitrary length.

New Randomizer::getFloat() and Randomizer::nextFloat() methods

PHP < 8.3
// Returns a random float between $min and $max, both including.
functiongetFloat(float $min,float $max) {
// This algorithm is biased for specific inputs and may
// return values outside the given range. This is impossible
// to work around in userland.
$offset=random_int(0,PHP_INT_MAX) / PHP_INT_MAX;

return$offset* ($max-$min) +$min;
}

$temperature=getFloat(-89.2,56.7);
$chanceForTrue=0.1;
// getFloat(0, 1) might return the upper bound, i.e. 1,
// introducing a small bias.
$myBoolean=getFloat(0,1) <$chanceForTrue;
PHP 8.3
$randomizer= new\Random\Randomizer();

$temperature=$randomizer->getFloat(
-89.2,
56.7,
\Random\IntervalBoundary::ClosedClosed,
);

$chanceForTrue=0.1;
// Randomizer::nextFloat() is equivalent to
// Randomizer::getFloat(0, 1, \Random\IntervalBoundary::ClosedOpen).
// The upper bound, i.e. 1, will not be returned.
$myBoolean=$randomizer->nextFloat() <
$chanceForTrue;

Due to the limited precision and implicit rounding of floating point numbers, generating an unbiased float lying within a specific interval is non-trivial and the commonly used userland solutions may generate biased results or numbers outside the requested range.

The Randomizer was also extended with two methods to generate random floats in an unbiased fashion. The Randomizer::getFloat() method uses the γ-section algorithm that was published in Drawing Random Floating-Point Numbers from an Interval. Frédéric Goualard, ACM Trans. Model. Comput. Simul., 32:3, 2022.

Command line linter supports multiple files

PHP < 8.3
php -l foo.php bar.php
No syntax errors detected in foo.php
PHP 8.3
php -l foo.php bar.php
No syntax errors detected in foo.php
No syntax errors detected in bar.php

The command line linter now accepts variadic input for filenames to lint

New Classes, Interfaces, and Functions

  • New DOMElement::getAttributeNames(), DOMElement::insertAdjacentElement(), DOMElement::insertAdjacentText(), DOMElement::toggleAttribute(), DOMNode::contains(), DOMNode::getRootNode(), DOMNode::isEqualNode(), DOMNameSpaceNode::contains(), and DOMParentNode::replaceChildren() methods.
  • New IntlCalendar::setDate(), IntlCalendar::setDateTime(), IntlGregorianCalendar::createFromDate(), and IntlGregorianCalendar::createFromDateTime() methods.
  • New ldap_connect_wallet(), and ldap_exop_sync() functions.
  • New mb_str_pad() function.
  • New posix_sysconf(), posix_pathconf(), posix_fpathconf(), and posix_eaccess() functions.
  • New ReflectionMethod::createFromMethodName() method.
  • New socket_atmark() function.
  • New str_increment(), str_decrement(), and stream_context_set_options() functions.
  • New ZipArchive::getArchiveFlag() method.
  • Support for generation EC keys with custom EC parameters in OpenSSL extension.
  • New INI setting zend.max_allowed_stack_size to set the maximum allowed stack size.
  • php.ini now supports fallback/default value syntax.
  • Anonymous classes can now be readonly.

Deprecations and backward compatibility breaks

  • More Appropriate Date/Time Exceptions.
  • Assigning a negative index n to an empty array will now make sure that the next index is n + 1 instead of 0.
  • Changes to the range() function.
  • Changes in re-declaration of static properties in traits.
  • The U_MULTIPLE_DECIMAL_SEPERATORS constant is deprecated in favor of U_MULTIPLE_DECIMAL_SEPARATORS.
  • The MT_RAND_PHP Mt19937 variant is deprecated.
  • ReflectionClass::getStaticProperties() is no longer nullable.
  • INI settings assert.active, assert.bail, assert.callback, assert.exception, and assert.warning have been deprecated.
  • Calling get_class() and get_parent_class() without arguments are deprecated.
  • SQLite3: Default error mode set to exceptions.
Better performance, better syntax, improved type safety.Upgrade to PHP 8.3 now!

The migration guide is available in the PHP Manual. Please consult it for a detailed list of new features and backward-incompatible changes.

If you need to download previous versions, you can viewMore ChangeLog