Understanding and Using Enums in PHP 8.1

Enums, short for enumerations, are a powerful tool in a developer’s arsenal. They offer a straightforward and effective way to define a type with a finite set of possible values, ensuring type safety and enhancing the readability of your code. While other programming languages have long incorporated this feature, PHP introduced native support for Enums only recently, in its 8.1 release. In this post, we will explore the concept of Enums, their historical context, and how to utilize them in PHP.

A Historical Look at Enums: From Other Languages to PHP

Enumerations, or Enums as they are more commonly known, have been a cornerstone in the programming world for quite some time. They have served as a powerful tool, facilitating the grouping of related constants into a single type, which has, in turn, elevated code readability and fortified type safety. Introduced as early as the 1960s in languages like ALGOL, Enums have been woven into the fabric of many popular languages. C++ started supporting Enums in the 1980s, followed by Java in 2004, C# in 2002, and even JavaScript caught up with TypeScript in 2012, offering Enum-like structures.

However, it’s noteworthy that PHP, a language with its first release in 1995 and enjoying widespread usage, has remained an exception to this trend for a long…