PHP Development
Write modern, performant PHP code.
When to use
- Writing PHP code
- PHP 8+ features
- Performance optimization
- Laravel/Symfony development
Modern PHP patterns
Type system (PHP 8+)
// Union types
function process(int|string $id): array|false {
// ...
}
// Constructor property promotion
class User {
public function __construct(
public readonly string $name,
public readonly string $email,
private ?int $age = null,
) {}
}
// Enums
enum Status: string {
case Pending = 'pending';
case Active = 'active';
case Completed = 'completed';
}
// Match expression
$result = match($status) {
Status::Pending => 'Waiting',
Status::Active => 'In Progress',
Status::Completed => 'Done',
};Generators
// Memory-efficient iteration
function readLargeFile(string $path): Generator {
$handle = fopen($path, 'r');
while (($line = fgets($handle)) !== false) {
yield trim($line);
}
fclose($handle);
}
// Usage
foreach (readLargeFile('huge.csv') as $line) {
processLine($line);
}
// Generator with keys
function parseCSV(string $path): Generator {
$handle = fopen($path, 'r');
$headers = fgetcsv($handle);
while (($row = fgetcsv($handle)) !== false) {
yield array_combine($headers, $row);
}
fclose($handle);
}SPL data structures
// Priority queue
$queue = new SplPriorityQueue();
$queue->insert('low', 1);
$queue->insert('high', 10);
$queue->insert('medium', 5);
while (!$queue->isEmpty()) {
echo $queue->extract(); // high, medium, low
}
// Fixed array (memory efficient)
$arr = new SplFixedArray(1000);
$arr[0] = 'value';Error handling
// Custom exceptions
class ValidationException extends Exception {
public function __construct(
public readonly string $field,
string $message,
) {
parent::__construct($message);
}
}
// Try-catch with multiple types
try {
process($data);
} catch (ValidationException $e) {
log("Validation failed: {$e->field}");
} catch (RuntimeException $e) {
log("Runtime error: {$e->getMessage()}");
} finally {
cleanup();
}Attributes (PHP 8)
#[Attribute(Attribute::TARGET_METHOD)]
class Route {
public function __construct(
public string $path,
public string $method = 'GET',
) {}
}
class Controller {
#[Route('/users', 'GET')]
public function listUsers(): array {
// ...
}
}Best practices
- Use strict types:
declare(strict_types=1); - Follow PSR-12 coding standard
- Use Composer for autoloading
- Prefer built-in functions over custom
- Use generators for large datasets
Examples
Input: "Optimize this PHP code" Action: Profile with Xdebug, use generators, leverage SPL structures
Input: "Modernize to PHP 8" Action: Add type hints, use match/enums, constructor promotion