haphpiness

Array Unpacking with String Keys

PHP 7.4 introduced the spread operator for arrays, but it only worked with integer keys. PHP 8.1 completed the feature by supporting string keys — making array merging clean and expressive.

$defaults = ['timeout' => 30, 'retries' => 3, 'verify' => true];
$custom   = ['timeout' => 60, 'debug' => true];

// Clean, readable merge with override semantics
$config = [...$defaults, ...$custom];
// ['timeout' => 60, 'retries' => 3, 'verify' => true, 'debug' => true]

// Works beautifully in function calls too
function createClient(string $host, array $options = []) {
    $opts = [...self::DEFAULT_OPTIONS, ...$options];
    // ...
}

The spread operator for arrays follows the same ... syntax used for function arguments, keeping the language consistent. Later values override earlier ones, just like phparray_merge, but with cleaner syntax.