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PHP7 also brings us some new operators. The first one we’re going to explore is the spaceship operator. With a name like that, who doesn’t want to use it? The Null Coalesce Operator, is effectively the fabled if-set-or. It will return the left operand if it is not NULL, otherwise it will return the right.
| Example | Name | Result |
|---|---|---|
| $a == $b | Equal |
TRUE if $a is equal to $b after type juggling. |
| $a === $b | Identical |
TRUE if $a is equal to $b, and they are of the same
type.
|
| $a != $b | Not equal |
TRUE if $a is not equal to $b after type juggling. |
| $a <> $b | Not equal |
TRUE if $a is not equal to $b after type juggling. |
| $a !== $b | Not identical |
TRUE if $a is not equal to $b, or they are not of the same
type.
|
| $a < $b | Less than |
TRUE if $a is strictly less than $b. |
| $a > $b | Greater than |
TRUE if $a is strictly greater than $b. |
| $a <= $b | Less than or equal to |
TRUE if $a is less than or equal to $b. |
| $a >= $b | Greater than or equal to |
TRUE if $a is greater than or equal to $b. |
| $a <=> $b | Spaceship | An integer less than, equal to, or greater than zero when $a is respectively less than, equal to, or greater than $b. Available as of PHP 7. |
| $a ?? $b ?? $c | Null coalescing |
The first operand from left to right that exists and is not NULL.
NULL if no values are defined and not NULL. Available as of PHP 7.
|
Documentation
Comparison Operators
Spaceship Operator RFC
Null Coalesce Operator RFC
PHP7 also brings us some new operators. 0:01 The first one we're going to explore is the space ship operator. 0:04 With a name like that, who doesn't want to use it? 0:08 The space ship operator, or combined comparison operator, is a nice addition 0:11 to the language, complementing the greater than and the less than operators. 0:16 The spaceship operator is put together using three individual operators 0:21 less than, equal and greater than. 0:26 Essentially what it does is check each operator individually. 0:29 First, less than. 0:33 If the value of the left is less than a value on the right. 0:35 The Spaceship Operator will return minus 1. 0:39 If not, 0:42 it will move to test if the value on the left is equal to the value on the right. 0:43 If so, it will return 0. 0:50 If not, it will move to the final test, 0:52 if the value on the left is greater than the value on the right. 0:56 Which if the other two haven't passed this one must be true and it will return 1. 1:01 The most common uses for this operator is in sorting. 1:06 Another new operator the null coalesce operator is effectively the fabled if, 1:11 set, or. 1:16 It will return the left operand if it is not null. 1:17 Otherwise it will return the right. 1:22 The important thing is that it will not raise unnoticed if the left operand 1:24 is a nonexistence variable. 1:29 For example, 1:31 name equals the variable first name double question marks the string Guest. 1:33 If the variable first name is Seth and it is not null. 1:39 It will assign that value to the variable name or 1:44 else it will assign Guest to the variable name. 1:48 Before PHP7, you could write something like this. 1:52 If not empty first name, name equals first name else name equals Guest. 1:56 What makes this even more powerful, is that you can stack these. 2:03 This operation will check each item from left to right. 2:07 And when it finds one that is not null, it will use that value. 2:11 This operator looks explicitly for null, or does not exist. 2:16 It will pick up an empty string. 2:21
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