A PHP array is one of the most-used data types, but few people think about how it works under the hood. A PHP array is actually a hash table – a data structure that allows O(1) element access. I show how it works, what the practical implications are, and where PHP arrays surprise you with their performance characteristics.
PHP 7.4 arrives in November 2019 and brings several changes that will have a real impact on everyday code. Typed properties are the headline feature – at last we can declare types directly on class properties. Plus arrow functions, spread in arrays, and the null coalescing assignment operator.
Inheritance is the simplest way to extend a class – but not always the best. When you want to add several independent features to an object, a class hierarchy quickly becomes unreadable. Decorator lets you wrap objects in layers of functionality without modifying the original and without deep inheritance.
Dependency Injection in Magento 2 looks like magic at first. You type an interface in the constructor and Magento delivers the right implementation. How does it know what to inject? How does DI compilation work? What are virtual types and what are they for? I break it all down.
PHP’s type system evolved gradually from 5.x. PHP 7.x strengthened it significantly – parameter typing, return types, nullable types, and union types on the horizon. PHP 7.4 adds typed properties. A good moment to summarise the state of typing and show best practices worth adopting today.
Every PHP developer eventually faces the question: how to set up a local environment? For years XAMPP was the default answer. Today we have far more options – and far more reasons to move away from XAMPP to Docker-based tools. I compare three popular approaches from the perspective of working with PHP and Magento 2.
Linear search always works. You go through every element one by one and eventually find what you are looking for. The problem appears with 100,000 elements when you do this in a loop. Binary search solves that problem elegantly – but only if the data is sorted.
Observer is one of the most commonly used patterns in object-oriented programming, and in the Magento 2 ecosystem it is built into the core of the platform. If you have ever written an event observer in Magento, you have used this pattern – often without realising it.
Directly using Magento 2 models in your own code is a tempting shortcut. The model is right there, it has the method you need, it works. The problem appears when Magento is updated and the internal implementation changes. Service Contracts are Magento’s answer – a stable, public API separated from the implementation.
PHP 7.3 was officially released in December 2018. Not a revolution, but a few changes have a real impact on everyday code – especially working with JSON, more flexible Heredoc syntax, and a handful of new array functions.