PHP Manual: Backward incompatible changes

Throw on passing too few function arguments

Previously, a warning would be emitted for invoking user-defined functions with too few arguments. Now, this warning has been promoted to an Error exception. This change only applies to user-defined functions, not internal functions. For example:


<?php
function test($param){}
test();

The above example will output something similar to:

Fatal error: Uncaught ArgumentCountError: Too few arguments to function test(), 0 passed in %s on line %d and exactly 1 expected in %s:%d

Forbid dynamic calls to scope introspection functions

Dynamic calls for certain functions have been forbidden (in the form of $func() or array_map('extract', ...), etc). These functions either inspect or modify another scope, and present with them ambiguous and unreliable behavior. The functions are as follows:

assert - with a string as the first argument
compact
extract
func_get_args
func_get_arg
func_num_args
get_defined_vars
mb_parse_str - with one arg
parse_str - with one arg


<?php
(function () {
    $func = 'func_num_args';
    $func();
})();

The above example will output:

Warning: Cannot call func_num_args() dynamically in %s on line %d

Invalid class, interface, and trait names

The following names cannot be used to name classes, interfaces, or traits:

void
iterable

Numerical string conversions now respect scientific notation

Integer operations and conversions on numerical strings now respect scientific notation. This also includes the (int) cast operation, and the following functions: intval (where the base is 10), settype, decbin, decoct, and dechex.

Fixes to mt_rand algorithm

mt_rand will now default to using the fixed version of the Mersenne Twister algorithm. If deterministic output from mt_srand was relied upon, then the MT_RAND_PHP with the ability to preserve the old (incorrect) implementation via an additional optional second parameter to mt_srand.

rand aliased to mt_rand and srand aliased to mt_srand

rand and srand have now been made aliases to mt_rand and mt_srand, respectively. This means that the output for the following functions have changes: rand, shuffle, str_shuffle, and array_rand.

Disallow the ASCII delete control character in identifiers

The ASCII delete control character (0x7F) can no longer be used in identifiers that are not quoted.

`error_log` changes with syslog value

If the error_log ini setting is set to syslog, the PHP error levels are mapped to the syslog error levels. This brings finer differentiation in the error logs in contrary to the previous approach where all the errors are logged with the notice level only.

Do not call destructors on incomplete objects

Destructors are now never called for objects that throw an exception during the execution of their constructor. In previous versions this behavior depended on whether the object was referenced outside the constructor (e.g. by an exception backtrace).

call_user_func handling of reference arguments

call_user_func will now always generate a warning upon calls to functions that expect references as arguments. Previously this depended on whether the call was fully qualified.

Additionally, call_user_func and call_user_func_array will no longer abort the function call in this case. The "expected reference" warning will be emitted, but the call will proceed as usual.

The empty index operator is not supported for strings anymore

Applying the empty index operator to a string (e.g. $str[] = $x) throws a fatal error instead of converting silently to array.

Removed ini directives

The following ini directives have been removed:

session.entropy_file
session.entropy_length
session.hash_function
session.hash_bits_per_character

Array ordering when elements are automatically created during by reference assignments has changed

The order of the elements in an array has changed when those elements have been automatically created by referencing them in a by reference assignment. For example:


<?php
$array = [];
$array["a"] =& $array["b"];
$array["b"] = 1;
var_dump($array);
?>

Output of the above example in PHP 7.0:

array(2) {
  ["a"]=>
  &int(1)
  ["b"]=>
  &int(1)
}

Output of the above example in PHP 7.1:

array(2) {
  ["b"]=>
  &int(1)
  ["a"]=>
  &int(1)
}

Sort order of equal elements

The internal sorting algorithm has been improved, what may result in different sort order of elements, which compare as equal, than before.

Note:
Don't rely on the order of elements which compare as equal; it might change anytime.

Error message for E_RECOVERABLE errors

The error message for E_RECOVERABLE errors has been changed from "Catchable fatal error" to "Recoverable fatal error".

$options parameter of unserialize()

The allowed_classes element of the $options parameter of unserialize is now strictly typed, i.e. if anything other than an array or a boolean is given, unserialize() returns FALSE and issues an E_WARNING.

DateTime constructor incorporates microseconds

DateTime and DateTimeImmutable now properly incorporate microseconds when constructed from the current time, either explicitly or with a relative string (e.g. "first day of next month"). This means that naive comparisons of two newly created instances will now more likely return FALSE instead of TRUE:


<?php
new DateTime() == new DateTime();
?>

Fatal errors to Error exceptions conversions

In the Date extension, invalid serialization data for DateTime or DatePeriod classes, or timezone initialization failure from serialized data, will now throw an Error exception from the __wakeup or __set_state methods, instead of resulting in a fatal error.

In the DBA extension, data modification functions (such as dba_insert) will now throw an Error exception instead of triggering a catchable fatal error if the key does not contain exactly two elements.

In the DOM extension, invalid schema or RelaxNG validation contexts will now throw an Error exception instead of resulting in a fatal error. Similarly, attempting to register a node class that does not extend the appropriate base class, or attempting to read an invalid property or write to a readonly property, will also now throw an Error exception.

In the IMAP extension, email addresses longer than 16385 bytes will throw an Error exception instead of resulting in a fatal error.

In the Intl extension, failing to call the parent constructor in a class extending Collator before invoking the parent methods will now throw an Error instead of resulting in a recoverable fatal error. Also, cloning a Transliterator object will now throw an Error exception on failure to clone the internal transliterator instead of resulting in a fatal error.

In the LDAP extension, providing an unknown modification type to ldap_batch_modify will now throw an Error exception instead of resulting in a fatal error.

In the mbstring extension, the mb_ereg and mb_eregi functions will now throw a ParseError exception if an invalid PHP expression is provided and the 'e' option is used.

In the Mcrypt extension, the mcrypt_encrypt and mcrypt_decrypt will now throw an Error exception instead of resulting in a fatal error if mcrypt cannot be initialized.

In the mysqli extension, attempting to read an invalid property or write to a readonly property will now throw an Error exception instead of resulting in a fatal error.

In the Reflection extension, failing to retrieve a reflection object or retrieve an object property will now throw an Error exception instead of resulting in a fatal error.

In the Session extension, custom session handlers that do not return strings for session IDs will now throw an Error exception instead of resulting in a fatal error when a function is called that must generate a session ID.

In the SimpleXML extension, creating an unnamed or duplicate attribute will now throw an Error exception instead of resulting in a fatal error.

In the SPL extension, attempting to clone an SplDirectory object will now throw an Error exception instead of resulting in a fatal error. Similarly, calling ArrayIterator::append when iterating over an object will also now throw an Error exception.

In the standard extension, the assert function, when provided with a string argument as its first parameter, will now throw a ParseError exception instead of resulting in a catchable fatal error if the PHP code is invalid. Similarly, calling forward_static_call outside of a class scope will now throw an Error exception.

In the Tidy extension, creating a tidyNode manually will now throw an Error exception instead of resulting in a fatal error.

In the WDDX extension, a circular reference when serializing will now throw an Error exception instead of resulting in a fatal error.

In the XML-RPC extension, a circular reference when serializing will now throw an instance of Error exception instead of resulting in a fatal error.

In the Zip extension, the ZipArchive::addGlob method will now throw an Error exception instead of resulting in a fatal error if glob support is not available.

Lexically bound variables cannot reuse names

Variables bound to a closure via the use construct cannot use the same name as any superglobals, $this, or any parameter. For example, all of these function definition will result in a fatal error:


<?php
$f = function () use ($_SERVER) {};
$f = function () use ($this) {};
$f = function ($param) use ($param) {};

JSON encoding and decoding

The serialize_precision ini setting now controls the serialization precision when encoding doubles.

Decoding an empty key now results in an empty property name, rather than _empty_ as a property name.


<?php
var_dump(json_decode(json_encode(['' => 1])));