haphpiness

#[\Deprecated] Attribute

PHP 8.4 lets you mark your own functions, methods, and class constants as deprecated using a native attribute — the same mechanism PHP itself uses internally. When someone calls deprecated code, they get a proper E_USER_DEPRECATED notice with your custom message.

class PaymentService {
    // Deprecate with a message and version since
    #[\Deprecated("Use processPayment() instead", since: "3.2")]
    public function charge(float $amount): bool {
        return $this->processPayment($amount);
    }

    public function processPayment(float $amount): bool {
        // New implementation
    }
}

$service = new PaymentService();
$service->charge(50.00);
// Deprecated: Method PaymentService::charge() is deprecated since 3.2,
// use processPayment() instead

// Works on functions too
#[\Deprecated("Use generateUuid() instead")]
function createId(): string {
    return generateUuid();
}

// And class constants
class Config {
    #[\Deprecated("Use TIMEOUT_SECONDS instead")]
    const TIMEOUT = 30;
    const int TIMEOUT_SECONDS = 30;
}

Before this attribute, library authors had to manually trigger trigger_error() inside deprecated methods — cluttering the implementation and offering no standard format. Now deprecation is metadata, clean and consistent.