Chapter 12: The Awesomeness That Is 8.1

I've been eagerly waiting to write this chapter until the feature freeze date for the upcoming (at the time of writing) PHP 8.1. The features that have made it into this release are amazing. For a lowly point release, it seriously packs a punch. PHP releases have a habit of being like that these days.

I only have one chapter, so I don't have an opportunity to do a deep dive into all of the new features, and I have the difficult task of deciding which features to cover and in how much depth. By the time you're reading this, the chances are that PHP 8.1 has been released, and I would definitely encourage you to use it.

If you want to read the full list of features and changes, you can take a look at this file:

php-src/UPGRADING at master · php/php-src · GitHub

https://git.io/JBE7t

This UPGRADING document is the most up-to-date authoritative list of changes at the time of writing.

There are a number of...