PHP 8.3: The Latest Enhancements and Modifications

PHP 8.3, officially launched on November 23, brings a host of new features and improvements over its predecessor, PHP 8.2. Classified as a minor release, the updates in PHP 8.3 hold significant potential to streamline your coding process, potentially making it quicker and more error-free.

Here's an overview of the major, as well as the subtler, enhancements introduced in this latest version.

New Features in PHP 8.3

• Typed Class Constants
• Added json_validate function
• Dynamic class constant and Enum member fetch support
• New mb_str_pad function
• New #[\Override] attribute
• New stream_context_set_options function
• class_alias() supports aliasing built-in PHP classes
• PHP CLI Lint (php -l) supports linting multiple files at once
• Fallback value support for PHP INI Environment Variable syntax
• Random extension: New \Random\Randomizer::getFloat() and nextFloat() methods
• Random extension: New \Random\Randomizer::getBytesFromString method
• gc_status() returns additional GC information

Syntax/Functionality Changes in PHP 8.3

• SQLite3: New \SQLite3Exception, deprecations, and changes
• Built-in CLI Server $_SERVER['SERVER_SOFTWARE'] value changed for RFC3875 compliance
• Class constant type declarations in some PHP extension classes
• Granular DateTime Exceptions
• highlight_file and highlight_string output HTML changes
• unserialize(): Upgrade E_NOTICE errors to E_WARNING

Deprecations in PHP 8.3

• get_class() and get_parent_class() function calls without arguments deprecated
• Assert: assert_options(), ASSERT_* constants, and assert.* INI settings deprecated