New Features, Improvements, and Deprecations in PHP 8.2

PHP 8.2 has been officially released, bringing a range of modernizations to the language and its ecosystem.

Type System Improvements

Independent true , null and false types are now supported, and Disjoint Normal Form (DNF) types enable combining union and intersection types for more precise type declarations.

Disjoint Normal Form (DNF) type support – in PHP 8.2 developers can combine union types (PHP 8.0) and intersection types (PHP 8.1) to declare more exact parameter, return and property types.

<code>function process((HTMLRequest &amp; RequestInterface) | APIRequest $request) {
    // ...
}
</code>

Adding true and false as independent types also allows changing a bool return type to a more specific literal type.

<code>function alwaysReturnsFalse(): false {}
function alwaysReturnsNull(): null {}
function alwaysReturnsTrue(): true {}
</code>

Readonly Classes

Readonly properties are extended to entire classes; declaring a class as readonly makes all its properties readonly and enforces type declarations.

<code>// PHP 8.2
readonly class User {
    public string $username;
    public int $uid;
}

// PHP 8.1 equivalent
class User {
    public readonly string $username;
    public readonly int $uid;
}
</code>

New Random Extension

The new random extension consolidates all RNG‑related functions and provides an object‑oriented API while keeping existing functions ( rand , mt_rand , random_bytes , random_int ) fully compatible.

<code>use Random\Engine\Secure;
$engine = new Secure();
$rand = new Random\Randomizer($engine);
$value = $rand->getInt(0, 100);
</code>

Trait Constants

Traits can now define constants. Although a trait’s constants cannot be accessed directly, they become class constants when the trait is used.

<code>trait FooBar {
    const FOO = 'foo';
    private const BAR = 'bar';
    final const BAZ = 'baz';
    final protected const QUX = 'qux';
}

class Test {
    use FooBar;
}

echo Test::BAZ; // 'baz'
</code>

Sensitive Parameter Support

PHP 8.2 adds the #[\SensitiveParameter] attribute, which hides the actual value of annotated parameters in error and stack traces, replacing them with a SensitiveParameterValue object.

<code>function passwordHash(#[\SensitiveParameter] string $password) {
    debug_print_backtrace();
}

passwordHash('hunter2');
</code>

<code>array(1) {
    [0]=> object(SensitiveParameterValue)#1 (0) {}
}
</code>

New Functions and Classes

ini_parse_quantity() – parses INI size strings (e.g., '256M' → 268435456 ).

curl_upkeep() – triggers internal Curl tasks to keep connections alive.

openssl_cipher_key_length() – returns the required key length for a given OpenSSL cipher.

memory_reset_peak_usage() – resets the peak memory usage reported by memory_get_peak_usage() .

Deprecations in PHP 8.2

Several legacy features are deprecated:

Dynamic properties – creating undeclared class properties now triggers a deprecation notice.

utf8_encode and utf8_decode – these functions actually operate on Latin‑1 and are removed.

String interpolation using ${var} – the syntax with a dollar sign outside braces is deprecated.

Partial support for callable patterns and certain Mbstring Base64/Uuencode/QPrint/HTML entity handling.

<code>class User {
    public int $uid;
}

$user = new User();
$user->name = 'Foo'; // Deprecated: Creation of dynamic property User::$name
</code>

Developers can silence these deprecations by using #[AllowDynamicProperties] , magic __get/__set methods, or by explicitly allowing dynamic properties.