DEV Community

Cover image for Swap variables in PHP using destructuring
Thomas Haas
Thomas Haas

Posted on

4 1

Swap variables in PHP using destructuring

Swapping variables is a common task, teached and often implemented using a temporary variable like this:

function swap(&$left, &$right): void
{
    $tmp = $left;
    $left = $right;
    $right = $tmp;
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

But there is a shorter way using destructuring (since php 7.1!):

function swap(&$left, &$right): void
{
    [$left, $right] = [$right, $left];
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Maybe the code looks a bit strange and I haven't analysed it for performance issues, but it helps to understand destructuring.

Btw., that's not a php-only feature, feel free to test it e.g. in javascript.

Top comments (0)

Qodo Takeover

Introducing Qodo Gen 1.0: Transform Your Workflow with Agentic AI

Rather than just generating snippets, our agents understand your entire project context, can make decisions, use tools, and carry out tasks autonomously.

Read full post