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PHP 8.2 New Features

Official Documentation: PHP 8.2 Release

1. Readonly Classes​

Marks an entire class as readonly, making all its properties readonly automatically.

readonly class User {
    public function __construct(
        public string $name,
        public string $email,
    ) {}
}

2. Disjunctive Normal Form (DNF) Types​

Allows combining union and intersection types. Intersection types must be grouped with parentheses.

public function process((A&B)|null $entity) { ... }

3. null, false, and true as Standalone Types​

These can now be used as return types on their own.

public function alwaysFalse(): false { return false; }

4. New "Random" Extension​

A new object-oriented API for random number generation, replacing the globally seeded RNG.

use Random\Randomizer;
$randomizer = new Randomizer();
echo $randomizer->getInt(1, 100);

5. Constants in Traits​

Traits can now define constants. These constants can be accessed through the class that uses the trait.

trait Foo {
    public const BAR = 'baz';
}
class MyClass {
    use Foo;
}
echo MyClass::BAR;

6. Deprecate Dynamic Properties​

Creating properties that were not declared in the class is now deprecated, unless the class opts in with the #[AllowDynamicProperties] attribute. stdClass is unaffected.

7. New Functions and Classes​

  • mysqli_execute_query()
  • #[SensitiveParameter] attribute to hide sensitive data in stack traces.
  • json_validate() (Wait, this is 8.3)
  • memory_reset_peak_usage()