Everything

php

PHP 5.5 Code Comparisons

Explore PHP 5.5

Generators

PHP 5.5 introduces generators, providing an easy way to make iterators without the overhead or complexity of implementing the Iterator interface. A function with yield returns a generator object.

Before PHP 5.5

class LineReader implements Iterator
{
    // Complex iterator boilerplate...
}

PHP 5.5 or Later

function getLines(string $file)
{
    $handle = fopen($file, 'r');
    while (($line = fgets($handle))
        !== false
    ) {
        yield $line;
    }
    fclose($handle);
}

Try/Catch/Finally

PHP 5.5 adds native support for try-catch-finally blocks. The code inside the finally block is always executed after try and catch blocks, regardless of whether an exception was thrown.

Before PHP 5.5

$conn = connect();
try {
    doWork($conn);
    disconnect($conn);
} catch (Exception $e) {
    disconnect($conn);
    throw $e;
}

PHP 5.5 or Later

$conn = connect();
try {
    doWork($conn);
} finally {
    disconnect($conn);
}

Class Name Resolution via ::class

PHP 5.5 introduces the ::class syntax for class name resolution. This allows obtaining the fully qualified name (FQN) of a class, interface, or trait safely at compile time without relying on __CLASS__ or get_class().

Before PHP 5.5

$name = 'App\\Entity\\User';
$container->get($name);

PHP 5.5 or Later

$name = User::class;
$container->get($name);

Expressions in empty()

Prior to PHP 5.5, passing function return values or expressions to empty() resulted in a fatal error. PHP 5.5 allows any expression inside empty().

Before PHP 5.5

$result = trim($input);
$isEmpty = empty($result);

PHP 5.5 or Later

$isEmpty = empty(trim($input));