PHP8 function: get_debug_type(), allowing you to easily obtain the type information of variables

A new function - get_debug_type() is introduced in PHP8, which can easily obtain the type information of variables, making it easier for us to write code.

In many cases, we need to obtain the type information of variables in the code. For example, we might need to determine the type of a variable when debugging code, or check the type of a variable when writing polymorphic code. Before PHP8, we could only achieve this by using the gettype() function or other workarounds, but now with the get_debug_type() function, we can easily get the type information of the variable.

The get_debug_type() function was introduced in the PHP8 version, and its syntax is very simple. It accepts a variable as argument and returns a string representing the type of the variable. For example:

$str = "Hello, World!";
$type = get_debug_type($str);
echo $type; // 输出"string"

In the above example, we pass a string variable $str to the get_debug_type() function and assign the return value to the $type variable. Since $str is a string, the get_debug_type() function returns "string".

Let us look at another example:

class Animal {}
class Cat extends Animal {}

$animal = new Animal();
$cat = new Cat();

echo get_debug_type($animal); // 输出 "Animal"
echo get_debug_type($cat); // 输出 "Cat"

In the above example, we defined an Animal class and a Cat class, and the Cat class inherits from the Animal class. Next, we create an $animal object and a $cat object and pass them to the get_debug_type() function. The get_debug_type() function returns "Animal" and "Cat" respectively because they are different object types.

Before PHP8, we could use the gettype() function to get the type of the variable:

$str = "Hello, World!";
$type = gettype($str);
echo $type; // 输出"string"

The above code will output "string", which is the result we expect. But the gettype() function has some limitations. For example, the gettype() function returns a string that represents the type of the variable. If we check an object using the gettype() function, it will return "object", but it will not tell us the class name of the object. This means we have to write more code to know the type of the object.

When using the get_debug_type() function, we do not need to write additional code. The string returned by the get_debug_type() function represents the type of the variable, including the class name of the object. This makes it easier when we write polymorphic code. For example, we can write a function that performs different operations depending on the type of input parameter:

function do_something($thing) {
  $type = get_debug_type($thing);
  if ($type === "string") {
    return strtoupper($thing);
  } else if ($type === "array") {
    return array_reverse($thing);
  } else {
    return "I don't know what to do with this thing!";
  }
}

echo do_something("Hello, World!"); // 输出 "HELLO, WORLD!"
echo do_something([1, 2, 3, 4]); // 输出 Array( [0] => 4, [1] => 3, [2] => 2, [3] => 1 )
echo do_something(new Animal()); // 输出 "I don't know what to do with this thing!"

In the above example, we wrote a do_something() function that accepts an input parameter, and perform different operations based on its type. We want to perform uppercase conversion on strings, reverse on arrays, and for everything else, we don't know what to do with it. We use the get_debug_type() function to get the type of the input parameter, and then perform different operations based on the type.

In short, get_debug_type() is a very useful function that allows us to easily obtain the type information of variables. It can help us write code more simply and efficiently, whether when debugging code or writing polymorphic code. If you haven't tried PHP8 yet, you might as well try the get_debug_type() function in your next PHP project. I believe you will be pleasantly surprised by its convenience.

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