PHP 7.3 Adds the php Function is_Countable
PHP is one of the most popular programming languages used for web development. The language has been undergoing improvements and new features over the years to make it more user friendly and modern. PHP 7.3 is no exception as it brings a number of improvements that will benefit web developers.
The first improvement is the php function is_countable which helps verify whether the value of a variable is countable or not. It takes a variable as parameter and returns a boolean value. If the variable is countable then it will return True else False. This is a handy little function that will save you from many mistakes.
Another addition to the PHP language is the bindParam() function. This is a function that lets you bind arguments to a method or closure in a way that is consistent with the rest of the language. The function is useful because it eliminates the need for a special variable to pass the arrays or variables to the function and makes the code more readable.
In PHP 7.2, trailing commas are allowed in variadic functions (array_merge, compact, and sprintf) and in grouped namespaces. However, they are not allowed in function calls and as a result, free standing commas, multiple trailing commas, and leading commas are still prohibited.
This release also improved FastCGI Process Manager logging, expanded LDAP controls, added a few more features to the mbstring library (including case-mapping and case-folding support), and made some improvements to password hashing. It also removed some undocumented mbstring function aliases that were duplications of functions with the mb_ prefix and deprecated some functionality that was no longer necessary.