PHP supports the spread syntax for variadic functions.
In JavaScript, you can use the spread syntax to do this:
var a = [1, 2];
var b = [...a, 3, 4];
console.log(b); // [1, 2, 3, 4]
However, trying to do this in PHP:
$a = [1, 2];
$b = [...$a, 3, 4];
var_dump($b);die;
Results in this error:
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '...' (T_ELLIPSIS), expecting ']'
Is using the spread syntax this way not allowed in PHP? If so, is there an equally-as-elegant way to achieve the same effect?
The spread operator in the arrays RFC has been implemented in PHP 7.4:
$ary = [3, 4, 5];
return [1, 2, ...$ary]; // same as [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Caveat: The unpacked array/Traversable can only have integer keys. For string keys array_merge() is still required.
In PHP 7.4 you can now use Spread Operators in array expressions.
$parts = ['apple', 'pear'];
$fruits = ['banana', 'orange', ...$parts, 'watermelon'];
// ['banana', 'orange', 'apple', 'pear', 'watermelon'];
Below PHP 7.4
$mainArray = ['element1', 'element2'];
$finalArray = array_merge($mainArray, ['element3']);
print_r($finalArray);
// Final array would be ['element1', 'element2', 'element3'];
In or Above PHP 7.4
$mainArray = ['element1', 'element2'];
$finalArray = [...$mainArray, 'element3'];
print_r($finalArray);
// Final array would be ['element1', 'element2', 'element3'];