PHP

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PHP Advanced

PHP Has WeakMap Too - and It Fixes Per-Object Caching

Caching computed data per object with static arrays pins those objects in memory forever - a leak with a cache's haircut. PHP 8's WeakMap caches without owning.

Feb 20, 2026 2 min 435 Read →

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PHP Intermediate

preg_replace_callback: Regex Replacements With a Brain

When each match needs logic - lookups, formatting, escaping - preg_replace hits its ceiling. The callback variant runs code per match, and preg_quote keeps user input from breaking your patterns.

Feb 13, 2026 3 min 170 Read →

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PHP Intermediate

array_intersect_key: The Input Whitelist Hiding in the Standard Library

Mass-assignment bugs happen when request data flows unfiltered into updates. Two array functions - intersect_key and diff_key - are the terse, auditable filter.

Feb 8, 2026 2 min 474 Read →

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PHP Beginner

natsort, Collator and the Spaceship: PHP Sorting Like a Human

"item10" before "item2", "Öl" after "z", uppercase clustering before lowercase - default sorts betray human expectations three different ways. PHP has a fix for each.

Feb 4, 2026 2 min 238 Read →

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PHP Beginner

PHP Array Destructuring Goes Further Than You Think

Keyed destructuring, foreach unpacking, swaps, nested extraction - the [$a, $b] syntax has quietly become one of PHP's best readability tools.

Jan 28, 2026 2 min 165 Read →

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PHP Beginner

DatePeriod: The Loop You Were Hand-Rolling for Calendars

Every date in a month, every Monday for a year, billing cycles between two dates - DatePeriod iterates ranges natively, immutably and off-by-one-free.

Jan 23, 2026 2 min 671 Read →

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PHP Intermediate

Stop Translating Month Names by Hand: PHP's intl Extension

Currency placement, month names, ordinal suffixes, "1.234,56" vs "1,234.56" - the intl extension knows every locale's rules, and most PHP developers never call it.

Jan 18, 2026 2 min 346 Read →

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PHP Intermediate

readonly + Constructor Promotion: DTOs in Five Lines

The 40-line value object - properties, constructor assignments, getters - collapses into a declaration. Modern PHP makes immutable data carriers nearly free to write.

Jan 10, 2026 2 min 408 Read →

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PHP Intermediate

Backed Enums Are Your Status Fields' Best Friend

Order statuses as loose strings invite typos, scattered labels and unguarded transitions. PHP 8.1 enums centralize the values, their behavior, and - with match - force you to handle every case.

Jan 2, 2026 2 min 557 Read →

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PHP Beginner

The Null-Safe Operator and Friends: PHP's Quiet Ergonomics Wave

?->, ??=, throw as an expression, and the spaceship - four small operators from recent PHP that collectively delete the noisiest guard code in legacy files.

Dec 28, 2025 2 min 953 Read →

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PHP Intermediate

strlen(...) Is Valid PHP Now: First-Class Callables

PHP 8.1 turned functions into values you can pass, store and compose - ending the string-callable era of 'array_map("strtoupper", ...)' and its silent refactoring bugs.

Dec 19, 2025 2 min 875 Read →

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PHP Intermediate

A Real Upload Progress Bar with XMLHttpRequest and PHP

fetch() still cannot report upload progress reliably - but XMLHttpRequest has done it for fifteen years. The full pattern: progress events, a PHP receiver, and the config limits that silently break big uploads.

Dec 8, 2024 2 min 2,906 Read →