PHP 7 is the latest big release for PHP, in this session you’ll learn what’s new and what to expect in terms of upgrading your current code work to the new version of PHP.

1. E D L O M O N A C O
G R D E V D A Y 2 0 1 6
Learning PHP 7

2. About Me
 Work At Terryberry
 Started PHP programming in 2001
 PHP 4.1 was the latest release
 I’ve Since Learned C# & Java
 PHP is still my favorite programming language
 I have a programming blog
 Eman's Programming Hub
 http://emansprogramminghub.blogspot.com

3. Quick History Recap
 PHP 4 was released in 2000
 PHP 5 was released in 2004
 PHP 6 Got caught up in disputes
 PHP group fought about Unicode support
 PHP 6 dissolved shortly after
 PHP 7 was released December 2015

4. Why PHP 7?
 PHP 6 has too much baggage
 Most of what PHP 6 was going to offer got added in
future PHP 5 releases
 PHP 6 is considered an experimental release
 PHP 7 just made sense

5. PHP 7 Highlights
 64-Bit Windows Support
 64-bit support in the past was considered experimental
 Lots of depreciated functions are gone
 Most of them were considered deprecated back in PHP 5
 Old APIs & extensions are gone as well

6. PHP 7 Highlights
 New Zend engine (PHPNG)
 PHP operates twice as fast with better memory handling

7. PHPNG Figures

8. PHPNG Figures

9. H O W W I L L P H P 7 B R E A K M Y L E G A C Y C O D E ?
Breaking Changes

10. Breaking Changes
 E_STRICT has been reclassified
 The constant is still available to avoid breaking legacy code

11. Breaking Changes
 ASP-Style & Script tags are no longer supported
 All ereg functions are gone
 ereg was deprecated a while ago and using preg_* is
recommended
 Various database-specific functions are gone
 mysql
 mssql
 list function cannot be empty
 It can’t be used to unpack string variables, use str_split()
 The ordering of assignment has been reversed

12. Breaking Changes
 global only accepts simple variables
 Variable variables can only be used if wrapped around curly
braces; that is discouraged however.
 foreach will not change the array pointer
 Hexadecimal strings are no longer considered
numeric

13. Breaking Changes
 Various mcrypt functions are removed
 mcrypt_generic_end() ;
 mcrypt_generic_deinit() is preferred
 mcrypt_ecb(), mcrypt_cbc(), mcrypt_cfb() and mcrypt_ofb()
 mcrypt_decrypt() with the appropriate MCRYPT_MODE_*
constant.
 GD Type1 functions are removed
 Using TrueType fonts and their associated functions is
recommended instead.

14. Breaking Changes
 New objects can no longer be assigned by reference
 Was depreciated in PHP 5
 Non-static methods cannot be called as static
 Was depreciated in PHP 5.6
 $HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA is removed
 php://input is the recommended method
 JSON has been replaced with JSOND
 Numbers cannot end with decimal point

15. Breaking Changes
 Functions can’t have similar-named variables
 Will throw an E_COMPILE_ERROR
 Switch statement can’t have multiple default blocks
 Will throw an E_COMPILE_ERROR
 PHP 4 style constructors are depreciated
 Division by zero will now return either NAN or float
 Used to return boolean

16. Uniform Variable Syntax
 Uniform Variable Syntax is an effort to making PHP
more consistent.
 It’ll be read strictly left to right from now on.

17. H O W C A N I M A K E M Y C O D E M O R E A W E S O M E
W I T H P H P 7 ?
New Features

18. Scalar Type Hints & Return Types
 You can now tell a function or method what it should
accept and return
 int
 bool
 string
 float
 Type hinting is non-strict by default
 declare(strict_types=1); will make type hinting strict

19. Null Coalescing Operator
 Ternary on steroids.
 Useful for when using isset()
 Null Coalescing can be chained
 Will return the first defined value

20. Combined Comparison
 Also known as the Spaceship Operator
 Used to compare two expressions
 It’ll return -1, 0, or 1
 -1 => The leftmost value is smaller
 0 => Both values are equal
 1 => The leftmost value is greater
 Can be used with any type

21. Unicode Escape Syntax
 Allows you to enter Unicode character code inside
PHP string
 Hexidecimal format

22. Bind Closure on Call
 Shorthand to Closure->bindTo()

23. Group Use Declarations
 Allows for a cleaner way to grab multiple objects
from similar namespace
 Can be applied to the following:
 Methods
 Constants
 Class

24. Throwable
 PHP Errors are now exceptions
 Allows you to better control how to use the error provided
 Was known as EngineException during development
 EngineException replaced with Throwable in PHP 7 alpha 2
 Throwable is the base interface that all errors
reference
 Exceptions are also connected to Throwable

25. Anonymous Classes
 Like a regular PHP Class but anonymous
 C# & Java already do this
 Best suited for one-time processes
 You can inherit interfaces & classes

26. Questions?

27. Code Example
 https://github.com/eman1986/PHP7-Examples