PHP 8 vs. PHP 7: Lets Compare

Introduction

The release of PHP 8 marked an important milestone in the evolution of one of the most popular scripting languages for web development. Building upon the solid foundation laid by PHP 7, PHP 8 introduces a selection of new features, performance enhancements, and syntactical improvements that aim to modernize the language, improve code quality, and boost execution speed.

In this article, we’ll delve into the key differences between PHP 7 and PHP 8, showcasing code snippets for a clearer comparison, and guide you through the process of upgrading your project from PHP 7 to PHP 8.

Performance: JIT Compiler

PHP 7 brought substantial performance improvements over its predecessor, PHP 5, thanks to the new Zend Engine 3. However, PHP 8 takes performance to the next level with the introduction of the Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler.

The JIT compiler works by compiling parts of the PHP bytecode into machine code at runtime, potentially improving the performance of PHP applications significantly, especially those with complex and long-running tasks.