I believe the reason a function or method in an object does not need the “function” keyword has to do with the fact that JS is built on the prototype model and the fact that functions are first class in JS.
As the saying goes, “Everything is an object in JavaScript…” (which is not strictly true).
Your example didn’t mention the use of the function keyword. Instead, it seemed to be questioning the placement of the return type - placing it after the argument list seems pretty common in newer languages.
It enforces scalar types (string, int, etc) at runtime if you enable strict mode. There’s also static analysis tools like PHPStan and Psalm that will flag issues at build time.
Can we talk about PHP functions with typehints too?
public static function foo(): string {Practically every other language with similar syntax does this instead:
public static string foo() {Rust and TypeScript use the return-type-at-the-end convention as well.
TypeScript doesn’t need the “function” keyword for a method in an object or on a class though.
const foo = { bar(): string { ... } }which I assume is doable because the syntax is unambiguous.
PHP’s object orientation is similar to languages like Java and C#, which is what I was comparing to.
I believe the reason a function or method in an object does not need the “function” keyword has to do with the fact that JS is built on the prototype model and the fact that functions are first class in JS.
As the saying goes, “Everything is an object in JavaScript…” (which is not strictly true).
Your example didn’t mention the use of the function keyword. Instead, it seemed to be questioning the placement of the return type - placing it after the argument list seems pretty common in newer languages.
Python too.
And Kotlin.
AND MY AXE!
TIL PHP has statics.
Also, does PHP actually enforce the type declarations? I’d assume it would but knowing PHP…
It enforces scalar types (string, int, etc) at runtime if you enable strict mode. There’s also static analysis tools like PHPStan and Psalm that will flag issues at build time.
so, no. good catch OP!
JavaScript (Typescript for the type part) and python, the most popular scripting languages, use the same order as PHP.
It’s usually compiled languages that do the other one.
TypeScript doesn’t need the “function” keyword for a method in an object or on a class though.
const foo = { bar(): string { ... } }which I assume is doable because the syntax is unambiguous.
In PHP’s case, the method syntax should also be unambiguous.