PHP 8 New Feature – Nullsafe Operator for Beginners

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Null-safe operator is a new syntax in PHP 8.0, that provides optional chaining feature to PHP.

In PHP, when working with objects, sometimes a property or method may not exist (it can be null).
Normally, checking this requires multiple if conditions to avoid errors.

PHP 8 introduced the Nullsafe Operator (?->) to make this easy.

Old Way (Before PHP 8)

<?php
if ($student !== null) {
    if ($student->address !== null) {
        echo $student->address->city;
    }
}

?>

We need multiple if checks to avoid “Trying to get property of non-object” error.

New Way in PHP 8 (Nullsafe Operator)

<?php
echo $student?->address?->city;
?>

If $student is null, or $student->address is null, the expression will not throw an error. It will simply return null.

Real-Life Example

<?php
class Student {
    public function __construct(
        public string $name,
        public ?Address $address = null
    ) {}
}

class Address {
    public function __construct(
        public string $city
    ) {}
}

$student1 = new Student("Amit", new Address("Delhi"));
$student2 = new Student("Rahul"); // No address

echo $student1?->address?->city; // Delhi
echo $student2?->address?->city; // null (No error!)

?>

Without nullsafe, $student2->address->city would crash.

With nullsafe, it just gives null safely.

Benefits of Nullsafe Operator

  • No need to write nested if checks
  • Prevents runtime errors
  • Makes code short, clean, and safe

In short: The Nullsafe Operator ?-> in PHP 8 helps you safely access object properties/methods without worrying about null errors.