What’s new in PHP 8.6

PHP 8.5 has brought us features such as the pipe operator, array_first(), array_last(), the URI extension, and the #[\NoDiscard] attribute. PHP 8.6 is shaping up to be another interesting release. It contains a mix of language improvements, new standard-library functions, better networking APIs, security improvements, and a few useful internal optimizations. It’s general availability is currently scheduled for November 19, 2026. So, it’s a good time to look at everything that has made it into PHP 8.6 so far. This article is based on the features currently listed in PHP’s implemented PHP 8.6 RFCs. Some details may still change before the final release but it should largely remain the same. Direction-aware property resolution Explicit endianness for pack() and unpack() Signed integers Floating-point values Better stream error handling Writing to object properties referenced by constants A limit for stream filter chains #[\Override] for class constants Deprecating return values from…

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