phptype-hintingphp-8.1php-8.2

Is there a type hint for an array of objects of a specific class in PHP 8.3?

Is there a type hint in PHP 8.3 which allows using ExampleClass[] for declaring it is an array of objects of the class ExampleClass?

In my specific case, ExampleClass is called Task

What I want but does not work:

private Task[] $tasks;

My PHPStorm IDE tells me that Plural types are allowed only in doc types
- speaking that only in PHPDoc using Tasks[] would be totally fine. But I want to use plain PHP.

The error is: PHP Parse error: syntax error, unexpected token "[", expecting variable

If I would only need one object Task and not an array of objects Task[] it would work with:

private Task $task;

This is my current, working workaround:

private array $tasks;
Solution

  • The short answer is no.

    My understanding is that enforcing such a thing has terrible performance problems. Some people want to go all the way and have full blown generics, others just want type-safe collections. Some people worry that implementing the latter first might hinder the development of the former in the future. So we’re at a standstill.

    There’s the occasional discussion in the community such as this: https://externals.io/message/108175

    Edit Depending on how you interpret the question, @Pierre's answer could be considered more correct, since the OP said "type hint", although they showed a "type declaration".

    There's a good thread from a while back arguing about the implications of what to call it, and that PHP's implementation is not a hint but a declaration. Some people argued that although calling it a "hint" is a misnomer, that shipped sailed and no matter what core changes, the community would still call it a hint. They did eventually update the documentation, however, to use "type declaration".

    Personally, I find myself still saying "type hint" for the explicit type declaration, but I try to catch and correct myself. I do this because I'm trying to change my mindset so that if I talk to a non-PHP person (usually a JavaScript person), they know that I'm not talking about IDE hints but true language features.

    Edit There’s a great post on the PHP Foundation's blog that shows the state of things as of August of 2024: State of Generics and Collections