One less hidden bug with Enum PHP 8.1 provides now enumerations, a.k.a. enums, as a native PHP construct. They provide a custom type with a limited set of values. Which might solve one less hidden bug with Enum. Enumerations have been around in PHP in various forms, for a long time : check bensampo/laravel-enum, spatie/enum, […]
22
Feb
Feb
6 unicity traps that sideline PHP code Sometimes, code is being ignored by PHP : code is painstakingly written but never gets executed. How is that even possible? May be, because it was not so painstakingly coded. And there are no less than 6 unicity traps that sideline PHP code. Indeed, there are some PHP […]
17
Feb
Feb
String to number comparison with PHP 8.x @FredBouchery reported one tiny update from PHP 8.0 : some of the comparisons have been modified between PHP 7 and PHP 8. This is pretty old news, since PHP 8.0 is not even the latest and greatest version of PHP, and it is also quite benign : For […]
09
Feb
Feb
All the Dynamic Syntax in PHP With PHP, dynamic calls happens when the call gets at least one of its expression’s elements (and sometimes, even all of them) at execution time. They are not known at coding time, so there are usually some variables involved in the matter. Here is a review of how to […]
28
Jan
Jan
Speeding up array_merge() While doing a crowd review of naval battle code at @afup_rennes (in French), it appeared that the ‘no array_merge() in loops’ rule was known but not clear. Indeed, why is it that this function in particular, should be avoided in loops. Hence, this article, with a journey to memory management, coding and […]
21
Dec
Dec
The upgrade sandwich With PHP 8.1 released last month, it is time to learn PHP 8.1 new features, and consider upgrading PHP code to PHP 8.0 new features. Wait a second… upgrade to PHP 8.0 ? Surely you mean, 8.1. Migrating to a new PHP version Migrating to a new version is actually a simple […]
02
Dec
Dec
Remove static variables One discreet update of PHP 8.1 is the upgrade of PHP static variables behavior in classes : Static variables in methods inheritance. Let’s review what are static variables in PHP, why they were problematic so far, and strategies to upgrade the code to remove this problem. PHP static variables While static properties […]
Installing Exakat to monitor several projects Exakat is the smart Static analysis tool for PHP. It reviews the source for PHP compatibility (8.0, 8.1, 8.2 already, Security, and much more. When running it for several projects, it is convenient to use the ‘projects’ style of installation, more than the ‘in-code’ configuration. The ‘projects’ installation is […]
Prepare for PHP migration with Exakat Exakat detects compatibility issues in your code, for each minor PHP versions since PHP 5.3. It scans the source for function apparence or disappearance, new syntax and behaviors. Here is how to prepare PHP migration with Exakat. init-project-done With a local docker system and access to your code, you […]
02
Nov
Nov
New error messages in PHP 8.1 With PHP 8.1 around the corner, it is time to take a look at the error messages that are going to become soon part of our life. They are a precious source of information when preparing the migration from PHP 8.0 to 8.1, for the Exakat engine : Here […]