All,
The b string prefix and the (binary) cast were both introduced in PHP 5.2.1 for forward compatibility with PHP 6.
In 2016, there was an RFC [1] targeting PHP 7.x to deprecate both, which was declined.
Since then, the (binary) type cast has now been deprecated in PHP 8.5.0 [2], but as far as I can see, the b-prefix for strings is still supported.
I can’t remember ever coming across this in the wild, so I wonder if it might be a good idea to deprecate the b-prefix now as well.
I’ll happily create an RFC for this if the you all think it’s a good idea.
Opinions ?
Smile,
Juliette
1: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/binary_string_deprecation
2: https://wiki.php.net/rfc/deprecations_php_8_5#deprecate_non-standard_cast_names