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PHP 8.4: Top Features and Improvements
PHP 8.4 is finally here, bringing exciting changes that are set to transform the way developers work! With every new version, PHP keeps proving why it’s such an essential tool in today’s web development landscape.
Prerequisites
This article assumes you have basic knowledge of the PHP programming language.
Software I Use for PHP Development
- Laravel Herd: used to manage my PHP versions and Nginx server.
- PHPStorm: A great IDE with good IntelliSense and AI copilot.
- Laragon: An easy-to-use local development environment that supports PHP and other technologies.
Asymmetric Property Visibility (version 2)🔓🔒
In PHP, the visibility of object properties has traditionally been symmetric. This means that the get
and set
operations for a property must share the same visibility—public, private, or protected—but cannot differ.
For instance, if a property is public, both reading and writing to it are public, with no way to allow one operation without the other.
In context, when you declare a property of a classpublic
, it becomes mutable, allowing it to be read and modified from outside the class.