[RFC] Typed array declarations

Hi everyone, I've been off for quite a while from internals, so I'm going to re-introduce myself briefly. I'm Wendell Adriel, I've been working with PHP since 2009. Worked over a decade with PHP enterprise applications, and currently I'm working as a Senior Software Engineer in the Laravel OSS Team. You can check more about me on my website (link in my email signature). I would like to propose native type declarations for PHP array keys and values. The RFC draft is available at: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/typed_array_declarations The proposal adds array<TValue> for integer-keyed arrays and `array<TKey, TValue> when the key type must be declared explicitly. Plain TValue>array` declarations remain unchanged. The RFC proposes three implementation levels that share the same syntax and Reflection metadata, but they provide different runtime guarantees: ```php final class ProductCatalog { public array<string, Product> $products = []; } $catalog = new ProductCatalog(); $catalog->products = ['featured' => new stdClass()]; // Whole-property assignment $catalog->products['featured'] = new stdClass(); // Direct dimension write ``` - **Level 1** parses the declaration and exposes it through Reflection, but does not validate elements. Both writes are accepted. - **Level 2** validates keys and values when an array crosses a declared boundary, such as a complete property assignment, argument, return value, default, or typed class constant. The first write throws TypeError, but the direct dimension write is still accepted. - **Level 3** includes Level 2 and enforces the constraint for later property mutations and references. Both writes throw TypeError before the invalid value is stored. I currently recommend Level 3 for typed properties because it preserves the guarantee the declaration appears to make. There is no implementation yet, because I first wanted to see which implementation level would be accepted. I will work on one after incorporating early feedback. I would appreciate any feedback, especially on the runtime semantics and the appropriate implementation level. Thanks in advance! *---* *Best Regards,* *Wendell Adriel.* *Software Engineer & Architect* *https://wendelladriel.com <https://wendelladriel.com>*