match

This will allow for a nicer FizzBuzz solution:

<?php

function fizzbuzz($num) {
    print match (0) {
        $num % 15 => "FizzBuzz" . PHP_EOL,
        $num % 3  => "Fizz" . PHP_EOL,
        $num % 5  => "Buzz" . PHP_EOL,
        default   => $num . PHP_EOL,
    };
}

for ($i = 0; $i <=100; $i++)
{
    fizzbuzz($i);
}

<?php
function days_in_month(string $month, $year): int
{
    return match(strtolower(substr($month, 0, 3))) {
        'jan' => 31,
        'feb' => is_leap($year) ? 29 : 28,
        'mar' => 31,
        'apr' => 30,
        'may' => 31,
        'jun' => 30,
        'jul' => 31,
        'aug' => 31,
        'sep' => 30,
        'oct' => 31,
        'nov' => 30,
        'dec' => 31,
        default => throw new InvalidArgumentException("Bogus month"),
    };
}
?>

can be more concisely written as

<?php
function days_in_month(string $month, $year): int
{
    return match(strtolower(substr($month, 0, 3))) {
        'apr', 'jun', 'sep',  'nov'  => 30,        
        'jan', 'mar', 'may', 'jul', 'aug',  'oct', 'dec'  => 31,
        'feb' => is_leap($year) ? 29 : 28,
        default => throw new InvalidArgumentException("Bogus month"),
    };
}
?>

As well as being similar to a switch, match expressions can be thought of as enhanced lookup tables — for when a simple array lookup isn't enough without extra handling of edge cases, but a full switch statement would be overweight.

For a familiar example, the following
<?php

function days_in_month(string $month): int
{
    static $lookup = [
    'jan' => 31,
    'feb' => 0,
    'mar' => 31,
    'apr' => 30,
    'may' => 31,
    'jun' => 30,
    'jul' => 31,
    'aug' => 31,
    'sep' => 30,
    'oct' => 31,
    'nov' => 30,
    'dec' => 31
    ];

    $name = strtolower(substr($name, 0, 3));

    if(isset($lookup[$name])) {
        if($name == 'feb') {
            return is_leap($year) ? 29 : 28;
        } else {
            return $lookup[$name];
        }
    }
    throw new InvalidArgumentException("Bogus month");
}

?>

with the fiddly stuff at the end, can be replaced by

<?php
function days_in_month(string $month): int
{
    return match(strtolower(substr($month, 0, 3))) {
        'jan' => 31,
        'feb' => is_leap($year) ? 29 : 28,
        'mar' => 31,
        'apr' => 30,
        'may' => 31,
        'jun' => 30,
        'jul' => 31,
        'aug' => 31,
        'sep' => 30,
        'oct' => 31,
        'nov' => 30,
        'dec' => 31,
        default => throw new InvalidArgumentException("Bogus month"),
    };
}
?>

Which also takes advantage of "throw" being handled as of PHP 8.0 as an expression instead of a statement.

While match allows chaining multiple conditions with ",", like:
<?php
$result = match ($source) {
    cond1, cond2 => val1,
    default => val2
};
?>
it seems not valid to chain conditions with default, like:
<?php
$result = match ($source) {
    cond1 => val1,
    cond2, default => val2
};
?>

Yes it currently does not support code blocks but this hack works:

match ($foo){
    'bar'=>(function(){
        echo "bar";
    })(),
    default => (function(){
        echo "baz";
    })()
};

If you want to execute multiple return expressions when matching a conditional expression, you can do so by stating all return expressions inside an array.

<?php
    $countries = ['Belgium', 'Netherlands'];
    $spoken_languages = [
        'Dutch' => false,
        'French' => false,
        'German' => false,
        'English' => false,
    ];

    foreach ($countries as $country) {
        match($country) {
            'Belgium' => [
                $spoken_languages['Dutch'] = true,
                $spoken_languages['French'] = true,
                $spoken_languages['German'] = true,
            ],
            'Netherlands' => $spoken_languages['Dutch'] = true,
            'Germany' => $spoken_languages['German'] = true,
            'United Kingdom' => $spoken_languages['English'] = true,
        };
    }

    var_export($spoken_languages); 
    // array ( 'Dutch' => true, 'French' => true, 'German' => true, 'English' => false, )

?>

I use match instead of storing PDOStatement::rowCount() result and chaining if/elseif conditions or use the ugly switch/break :

<?php

$sql = <<<SQL
    INSERT INTO ...
    ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE ...
    SQL;

$upkeep = $pdo->prepare($sql);

$count_untouched = 0;
$count_inserted = 0;
$count_updated = 0;

foreach ($data as $record) {
    $upkeep->execute($record);
    match ($upkeep->rowCount()) {
        0 => $count_untouched++,
        1 => $count_inserted++,
        2 => $count_updated++,
    };
}

echo "Untouched rows : {$count_untouched}\r\n";
echo "Inserted rows : {$count_inserted}\r\n";
echo "Updated rows : {$count_updated}\r\n";

While you can’t polyfill a language construct, you can mimic the basic behaviour with a simple array.

Using example 2 above:

<?php
    $food = 'apple';
    $return_value = match ($food) {
        'apple' => 'This food is an apple',
        'bar' => 'This food is a bar',
        'cake' => 'This food is a cake',
    };    
    print $return_value;
?>

… you can get something similar with:

<?php
    $food = 'apple';    
    $return_value = [
        'apple' => 'This food is an apple',
        'bar' => 'This food is a bar',
        'cake' => 'This food is a cake',
    ][$food];
    print $return_value;
?>

If you are using a match expression for non-identity checks as described above make sure whatever you are using is actually returning `true` on success.

Quite often you rely on truthy vs. falsy when using if conditions and that will not work for match (for example `preg_match`). Casting to bool will solve this issue.

Since `match` is a better alternative in MOST cases for modern software, adding this comment so that if someone googles "`switch` in PHP" then this page also shows in the search results.