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Introduction to PHP7

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New Operators

2:23 with Alena Holligan

PHP7 also brings us some new operators. The first one we’re going to explore is the spaceship operator. With a name like that, who doesn’t want to use it? The Null Coalesce Operator, is effectively the fabled if-set-or. It will return the left operand if it is not NULL, otherwise it will return the right.

Comparison Operators
Example Name Result
$a == $b Equal TRUE if $a is equal to $b after type juggling.
$a === $b Identical TRUE if $a is equal to $b, and they are of the same type.
$a != $b Not equal TRUE if $a is not equal to $b after type juggling.
$a <> $b Not equal TRUE if $a is not equal to $b after type juggling.
$a !== $b Not identical TRUE if $a is not equal to $b, or they are not of the same type.
$a < $b Less than TRUE if $a is strictly less than $b.
$a > $b Greater than TRUE if $a is strictly greater than $b.
$a <= $b Less than or equal to TRUE if $a is less than or equal to $b.
$a >= $b Greater than or equal to TRUE if $a is greater than or equal to $b.
$a <=> $b Spaceship An integer less than, equal to, or greater than zero when $a is respectively less than, equal to, or greater than $b. Available as of PHP 7.
$a ?? $b ?? $c Null coalescing The first operand from left to right that exists and is not NULL. NULL if no values are defined and not NULL. Available as of PHP 7.

Documentation

Comparison Operators
Spaceship Operator RFC
Null Coalesce Operator RFC

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    PHP7 also brings us some new operators. 0:01
    The first one we're going to explore is the space ship operator. 0:04
    With a name like that, who doesn't want to use it? 0:08
    The space ship operator, or combined comparison operator, is a nice addition 0:11
    to the language, complementing the greater than and the less than operators. 0:16
    The spaceship operator is put together using three individual operators 0:21
    less than, equal and greater than. 0:26
    Essentially what it does is check each operator individually. 0:29
    First, less than. 0:33
    If the value of the left is less than a value on the right. 0:35
    The Spaceship Operator will return minus 1. 0:39
    If not, 0:42
    it will move to test if the value on the left is equal to the value on the right. 0:43
    If so, it will return 0. 0:50
    If not, it will move to the final test, 0:52
    if the value on the left is greater than the value on the right. 0:56
    Which if the other two haven't passed this one must be true and it will return 1. 1:01
    The most common uses for this operator is in sorting. 1:06
    Another new operator the null coalesce operator is effectively the fabled if, 1:11
    set, or. 1:16
    It will return the left operand if it is not null. 1:17
    Otherwise it will return the right. 1:22
    The important thing is that it will not raise unnoticed if the left operand 1:24
    is a nonexistence variable. 1:29
    For example, 1:31
    name equals the variable first name double question marks the string Guest. 1:33
    If the variable first name is Seth and it is not null. 1:39
    It will assign that value to the variable name or 1:44
    else it will assign Guest to the variable name. 1:48
    Before PHP7, you could write something like this. 1:52
    If not empty first name, name equals first name else name equals Guest. 1:56
    What makes this even more powerful, is that you can stack these. 2:03
    This operation will check each item from left to right. 2:07
    And when it finds one that is not null, it will use that value. 2:11
    This operator looks explicitly for null, or does not exist. 2:16
    It will pick up an empty string. 2:21

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