A Look at PHP 7

php7_logoPHP 7 is the most exciting change for PHP since PHP 5 was released just over ten years ago.  It makes structuring and powering webpages newly exciting.

PHP has been faster than most other dynamic languages, but with this newest update, the gap increased so that PHP 7 is nearly three times as fast as the nearest competitor. The performance improvements are spectacular, memory consumption has been considerably reduced, and new language features offer exciting possibilities for faster apps.

Because of the tremendous improvement in speed, another benefit is that it will take fewer servers to support the same amount of users. The refactored Zend Engine allows incredible performance boosts for applicants, with lower memory consumption.

PHP 7’s consistent 64-bit support provides for both native 64-bit integers and large files. This allows you more capability on a Windows system than in previous versions.

The update enables accurate type declarations and prevents unintended return values. This greatly enhances the quality of developers’ codes. Additionally this newest version initiates four new type declarations for scalar types: int, float, string, and bool. With these, the developers can specify what exactly they are looking to be returned.

The addition of anonymous classes can be utilized to speed up coding and execution. This is especially helpful when a class is just used once or when it does not require documentation. An anonymous class is the same as a traditional PHP class, just without a name.

An exciting new feature, Group Use Declarations, allows for multiple imports from the same namespace. This makes the code less wordy, cleaner, easier to read, and cuts down significantly on typing time.

In line with its intention to improve by cleaning up space, PHP 7 disposed of deprecated items and functionalities. In most cases, you won’t notice a difference as these were seldom used programs.  If you are curious about the exclusions, take a look in more detail here or here.

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