PHP 5.3 introduces several new features including namespaces, late static binding, dynamic class names with __callStatic, shorthand ternary operator ?:, goto support, NOWDOC syntax, and the __DIR__ constant. It also includes a new Phar archive extension, improved ICU internationalization support, more flexible INI settings, use of MySQLnd by default, and enhanced garbage collection. Performance is improved through opcode optimizations and reduced system calls.

1. What’s coming in PHP 5.3
By Stas Malyshev
Copyright © 2007, Zend Technologies Inc.

2. 5.2 vs 5.3 vs 6
• 5.3 is a major version, should be 5½.0
• 6 taking long time, features drift back
• No sudden moves in 5.x
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3. Syntax
• Namespaces!
• Late static binding (static::foo vs self::foo)
• $classname::method()
• __callstatic()
• Goto
• ?:
• $NOWDOC = <<„END‟
• __DIR__
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4. Functions
• Phar – PHP Archive
• Pect/intl – ICU support
• MySQLnd
• INI magic – per dir, per user, .htaccess-style
• OpenSSL for OpenID
• SPL class library
• Date/time improvements
• Getopt() support
• E_DEPRECATED
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5. Engine
• Garbage collection!
• Stack usage improvements
• Opcode optimizations
• System call reduction
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6. Namespaces
define(“MY_HTTP_GET”, 1); namespace My::Http;
define(“MY_HTTP_POST”, 2);
const GET = 1;
const PUT = 2;
class My_Http_Request {
function __construct( class Request {
$method = function __construct(
ZEND_HTTP_GET) $method = GET)
{
{ }
} }
}
function send_request(
Request $request) {
function my_http_send_request( }
My_Http_Request $request) {
}
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7. Namespaces
• Organize OO code into self-contained units
• Reduce conflicts
• Shorten names
 class
Zend_Search_Lucene_Analysis_Analyzer_Common_TextNum_CaseInsensiti
ve extends Zend_Search_Lucene_Analysis_Analyzer_Common_TextNum
• Compile-time definition
• Mostly compile-time resolution
• Many NS per file, many files per NS
• Real names have ::
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8. Namespaces – new syntax
• namespace foo::bar;
• use foo::bar as baz, boo::hoo::foo;
• __NAMESPACE__
• namespace::foo
• ::foo() - means global one
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9. Late Static Binding
Gateway to ActiveRecord
class Singleton {
const ID = 0;
static $instance = array();
static function getInstance() {
$id = static::ID;
if (empty(self::$instance[$id])) {
self::$instance[$id] = new static;
}
return self::$instance[$id];
}
}
class Foo extends Singleton {
const ID = 1;
}
$x = Foo::getInstance();
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10. Dynamic class name
Everything can be variable, class name too
class DbDriver {
const NAME = “MySQLDriver”;
static function execute($sql) {
}
}
$db = “DbDriver”;
echo $db::NAME;
$db::execute(“SELCT * FROM foo;”);
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11. __callStatic
__call‟s static cousin
class DummyDriver {
const NAME = „Dummy‟;
static function __callstatic($name, $args) {
echo static::NAME.“::$name is not implemented”;
}
}
class MySqlDriver extends DummyDriver {
const NAME = „MySQL‟;
}
$db = „MySqlDriver‟;
$db::execute(„SELCT * FROM foo;‟);
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12. ?:
Shortcut for $a?$a:$b
$name = $_GET[„name‟] ?: „anonymous‟;
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13. goto
Guess what it does ;)
RETRY:
try {
…
} catch (Exception $e) {
recovery($e);
goto RETRY;
}
• Don‟t try it at home – unless you know what you do
• Can‟t jump into blocks
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14. NOWDOC
Repeat after me, exactly as I say it:
$a = 3; $b = 5;
echo <<<EOF
$a+$b
EOF; // prints 3+5
echo <<<„EOF‟
$a+$b
EOF; // prints $a+$b
echo <<<“EOF”
$a+$b
EOF; // printd 3+5
Note HEREDOC has two syntaxes now
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15. __DIR__
__FILE__‟s brother – constant dirname(__FILE__)
class Foo {
const BAR = dirname(__FILE__); // can‟t!
const BAR = __DIR__;
public $bar = dirname(__FILE__); // can‟t!
public $bar = __DIR__;
}
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16. Phar
• Packs multiple PHP files into one .phar
• Supports streams & includes into phar
• Supports running CLI and Web apps from phar
include „phar://mylib.phar/My/Http.php‟;
$img = „phar://mylib.phar/My/img/logo.jpg‟;
header(„Content-type: image/jpeg‟);
echo file_get_contents($img);
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17. ICU extension
• Supports internationalization functions from IBM
ICU
• Collation (plain English: sorting)
• Number/Date/Message formatting
• Locale representation
• Normalization
• Graphemes
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18. INI improvements
• Localized sections:
 [PATH=/var/www/html/mysite]
 [HOST=www.myblog.com]
• .htaccess-style user files
 user_ini.filename = “.user.ini”
 user_ini.cache_ttl = 300
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19. MySQLnd
• PHP-specific MySQL client library
• Uses Zend MM
• Reduces copying of data
• Uses PHP streams
• --with-mysql=mysqlnd
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20. E_DEPRECATED
• Functionality that will be removed in next versions
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21. Other function improvements
• OpenSSL support for OpenID
 openssl_digest(), openssl_encrypt(), openssl_decrypt(), DH key
exchange
• Getopt() on all OSes with –support-long-options
• Faster md5()
• OCI8 connection pooling
• SPL class library additions:
 DoublyLinkedList, Stack, Queue, PriorityQueue, Heap
 FilesystemIterator, GlobIterator
• Date/time improvements
 date_create_from_format(), date_get_last_errors()
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22. Garbage collector
• Collects memory lost in loops
• Invisible to the untrained eye
• gc_collect_lops, gc_enable, gc_disable
$a = array();
$a[0] =& $a;
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23. Performance
• Bench.php
4.075
php 5.3
PHP version
5.577
php 5.2
5.38 php 5.1
13.415 php 5.0
php 4.4
14.443
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
sec
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24. Thank you!
• Questions?
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