deprecate-spl-reflection-functions.md

PHP RFC: Deprecate reflection-esque functions from SPL

• Version: 0.1
• Date: 2024-MM-DD
• Author: Gina Peter Banyard [email protected]
• Status: Under Discussion
• Target Version: PHP 8.5
• Implementation: TBD
• First Published at: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/deprecate-spl-reflection-functions

Introduction

The SPL extension proposes a few functions that effectively do reflection on classes and objects. Those functions are:

• spl_classes(), which is effectively equivalent to (new ReflectionExtension('spl'))->getClassNames()
• class_implements('ClassName'), which is effectively equivalent to (new ReflectionClass('ClassName'))->getInterfaceNames()
• class_uses('ClassName'), which is effectively equivalent to (new ReflectionClass('ClassName'))->getTraitNames()
• class_parents('ClassName'), which does not have an equivalent in ext/reflection but can be achieved using a while loop and ReflectionClass::getParentClass()

Proposal

We propose to deprecate the above SPL functions in PHP 8.5 and instead redirect users to use Reflection to achieve the result of these functions.

A secondary proposal is to add the following two methods to ReflectionClass:

/** @return list<ReflectionClass> */
public function getParentClasses(): array {}

/** @return list<string> */
public function getParentClassNames(): array {}

which follow the existing set of methods:

• public function getInterfaces(): array {}
• public function getInterfaceNames(): array {}
• public function getTraits(): array {}
• public function getTraitNames(): array {}

Backward Incompatible Changes

Using the following functions will raise a deprecation notice

• spl_classes()
• class_implements('ClassName')
• class_uses('ClassName')
• class_parents('ClassName')

Version

Next minor version, PHP 8.5, and next major version PHP 9.0.

Vote

VOTING_SNIPPET

Future scope

References