On 15/06/2026 3:22 am, Seifeddine Gmati wrote:
Hello Internals,
I'd like to start the discussion on a new RFC adding literal scalar
types to PHP.
- RFC: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/literal_scalar_types
- Implementation: https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/22314
Thanks,
Seifeddine.
I mainly see the benefit here as being able to be more strict about what
a function actually accepts and returns, in cases where a dedicated enum
would be overkill.
Two things I'd like to understand better:
Does the RFC allow referencing constants in type positions, or only raw
literal values?
```
function foo(STATUS_ACTIVE|STATUS_INACTIVE $sort): void {}
```
```
What about enum values? For example:
function bar(Status::Active->value $status): void {}
// or simply as
function bar(Status::Active $status): void {}
```
Also, I'm not really a fan of mixing literal types with unions.
```
function foo(int|'bar' $param): void {}
```
To me, mixing these makes it harder to reason about what a function
actually accepts. The whole point of literal types is to be (more)
precise but the moment you throw a wide type like int into the union,
that precision goes out the window. If a function takes int|'bar', what
does that really tell me? It feels like it defeats the purpose.
--
Regards,
Jordi Kroon
