The Iterable Function in PHP
The is_iterable function in PHP verifies whether a variable is iterable. This helps developers avoid errors caused by trying to loop over non-iterable variables. The is_iterable function takes a variable name as its parameter and returns a boolean value of True or False.
The iterable design pattern is a common approach to traversing complex data structures. It allows clients to go over the elements of the collection in a sequence without exposing the internal details of the collection. It is implemented as an interface that provides navigation methods such as next, previous and current. This is a very useful design pattern that should be used in any application where traversal of the data structure is required.
Besides this, PHP 8.1 introduces named function parameters in addition to positional arguments, adds the ability to define return types to include null as an option and makes it possible for functions to use the
Lastly, the is_iterable() function is an easy-to-use type checker that checks if a variable is iterable. It is very simple to use, and will help avoid runtime errors if an argument that is not iterable is passed to a foreach loop. This is a feature that seems to be very needed in the PHP community, especially for the many plugin and theme developers who write code to support PHP Core and other frameworks.