[RFC] Short Array Variable Shorthand
| From: | Weilin Du | Date: | Tue, 29 Sep 2026 17:44:07 +0000 |
| Subject: | [RFC] Short Array Variable Shorthand | ||
| Groups: | php.internals | ||
| Request: | Send a blank email to internals+get-132700@lists.php.net to get a copy of this message | ||
Hi folks!
Today, I want to announce my second RFC to php 8.7
https://wiki.php.net/rfc/array_shorthand
This RFC brings a IMO useful syntactic sugar to array's
construction and destruction. I hope you'all find this
interesting! To be short:
```
$point = [:$x, :$y, :$z]; // ['x' -> $x, 'y' -> $y, 'z' ->
$z]
[:$x, :$y, :$z] = $point; // reverse.
```
We also support the foreach syntax ofc, see examples
in the RFC.
Same feature has been implemented in perl. And 13
years ago the named argument RFC have already
list this as part of the future scope [1]
Some may ask why don't you propose this for all
functions but just for the
[] syntax in arrays? Well,
sadly I don't have enough time and energy to put
in php now (I am unfunded) so I will leave it for others
if they want in the future.
Again I hope you'all find this useful and interesting :)
Thank you,
Weilin Du
[1]: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/named_params#shorthand_syntax_for_matching_parameter_and_variable_name