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PHP lacks support for generics, posing challenges for typed arrays which are essential for frameworks and tools relying on precise type definitions. The proposal aims to introduce a native solution for typed arrays using syntax like `array<Type>` to enhance both runtime type-checking and IDE support for array types. This proposal ensures compatibility with potential future generic additions and provides various examples to demonstrate the behaviors and principles of typed arrays, such as value-passing, type-casting, nesting, and interaction with existing PHP type systems. Performance impacts and future optimizations are also considered.

PHP: rfc:generic-arrays

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I went deep and wrote a fairly detailed proposal for typed array in PHP.

```php
function processUserConsent(bool $accepted, array<string> $categories) {
    if ($accepted) {
	    setcookie('consent', implode(",", $categories), time() + 24*60*60*365);
	} else {
	    setcookie('consent', '', 1);
	}
}

$post = [
    "accepted" => true,
	"categories" => ["necessary", "preferences"]
];

processUserConsent(...$post);
```

This is a very basic example, but the proposal considers many implementation details, backwards compatibility, future optimization, and features like reflection and references.

This looks like generics, and in a sense, it is - but for arrays only. It is designed to be compatible with a possible future generics feature (another proposal I worked on in depth previously) however it attempts to start with a much smaller feature, since the implementation details likely wouldn't overlap considerably with full-blown generics.

Note that this is a very different proposal from the [rejected 2014 proposal](https://wiki.php.net/rfc/arrayof) (both in terms of syntax and scope) and attempts to address most of the critique I could find in the mailing list activity from back then.

I hope this is enough to restart the conversation and motivate the community to reconsider this feature. 🙂✌️

<p>I went deep and wrote a fairly detailed proposal for typed array in PHP.

```php
function processUserConsent(bool $accepted, array&lt;string&gt; $categories) {
    if ($accepted) {
	    setcookie('consent', implode(&quot;,&quot;, $categories), time() + 24*60*60*365);
	} else {
	    setcookie('consent', '', 1);
	}
}

$post = [
    &quot;accepted&quot; =&gt; true,
	&quot;categories&quot; =&gt; [&quot;necessary&quot;, &quot;preferences&quot;]
];

processUserConsent(...$post);
```

This is a very basic example, but the proposal considers many implementation details, backwards compatibility, future optimization, and features like reflection and references.

This looks like generics, and in a sense, it is - but for arrays only. It is designed to be compatible with a possible future generics feature (another proposal I worked on in depth previously) however it attempts to start with a much smaller feature, since the implementation details likely wouldn't overlap considerably with full-blown generics.

Note that this is a very different proposal from the [rejected 2014 proposal](https://wiki.php.net/rfc/arrayof) (both in terms of syntax and scope) and attempts to address most of the critique I could find in the mailing list activity from back then.

I hope this is enough to restart the conversation and motivate the community to reconsider this feature. 🙂✌️</p>