Did you know PHP can do this?

Did you know PHP can do this?

10 powerful tools you should be using

Every PHP release brings new features that make code shorter, smarter and nicer to maintain. But as countless interviews and consultations have shown me, most of them slip past even experienced developers.

This series is for those who, like me, want to really unlock PHP's potential and enjoy development.

We'll go through 10 features that:

  • have been around since PHP 5.5 but still get overlooked;
  • genuinely simplify code;
  • show how versatile PHP is.

Parts of the series

  1. Property Promotion — less code, easier to read (PHP 8.0)
  2. Anonymous classes — a class "on the fly", with no name and no separate file (PHP 7.0)
  3. Arrow functions — like a closure, only slimmer (PHP 7.4)
  4. Generators — an old tool most people still don't use (PHP 5.5)
  5. DateTimeImmutable — when time changes but objects don't (PHP 5.5)
  6. Named arguments — order no longer matters (PHP 8.0)
  7. Enums — only the intended values (PHP 8.1)
  8. readonly + accessors — stable DTOs and Value Objects without boilerplate (PHP 8.1 / 8.4)
  9. Attributes — metaprogramming without DocBlock hacks (PHP 8.0)
  10. Coming soon

The series was published in Ukrainian in the Telegram channel “Created to die” starting October 15, 2025.