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In-Reply-To: <20260204022858.DA5F81A00BD@lists.php.net>
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2026 08:39:37 +0100
Message-ID: <CAFgk54mpS9b11aJ2g+y-YoL5PnPdoHLdrAQsX9h49Ex894uEqQ@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [IDEA for RFC] let the "new" operator fail when the
 __construct() function returns a value.
To: Ben Ramsey <ramsey@php.net>
Cc: internals@lists.php.net
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From: mirco.babin@gmail.com (Mirco Babin)

>The "Make constructors and destructors return void" RFC was voted on and
>declined in 2020. PHP has come a long way since then, and I'm curious
>whether a similar proposal (targeting PHP 9) might pass nowadays. I'd
>certainly consider voting for it. Perhaps in PHP 8.6, we could begin
>emitting a deprecation message for constructors that return values?

As written to Tim D=C3=BCsterhus: I have prepared a RFC at
https://gist.github.com/MircoBabin/aaa574297c8d1baa879f19c99ce28e93

Kind regards,
Mirco Babin

Op wo 4 feb 2026 om 03:30 schreef Ben Ramsey <ramsey@php.net>:
>
> On 2/2/26 12:00, Mirco Babin wrote:
> > # Problem
> >
> > The "new" operator internally calls the __construct() function. However=
,
> > the return value of the __construct() function is silently lost. This i=
s
> > very error-prone; I personally made a major security mistake with this =
when
> > upgrading from Laravel 9 to Laravel 12.
>
> Can you elaborate on this? I'd like to better understand what the
> problem was with constructors that returned values when you upgraded
> from Laravel 9 to Laravel 12.
>
> > To prevent future problems, my proposal is to have the "new" operator
> > explicitly issue warnings, and later have it explicitly abort when the
> > __construct() function returns a value.
>
> So, to restate your proposal: you want to disallow returning from
> constructors=E2=80=A6but only if invoked when using the `new` keyword?
>
> So, if you call `$object->__construct()`, there's no error, and you can
> get the return value, but if you do `new Foo()`, you'd get an error?
>
> > And I've been told that the
> > rejected PHP RFC Make constructors and destructors return void
> > ( https://wiki.php.net/rfc/make_ctor_ret_void ) rejects my proposal.
> > However, my proposal is explicitly about the "new" operator and not
> > about return types. It does, however, concern return values.
> I'm not sure how this differs from the void return type proposal. When
> it throws a TypeError, it will effectively be saying, "this method can't
> return anything," which means the return type is `void`.
>
> The "Make constructors and destructors return void" RFC was voted on and
> declined in 2020. PHP has come a long way since then, and I'm curious
> whether a similar proposal (targeting PHP 9) might pass nowadays. I'd
> certainly consider voting for it. Perhaps in PHP 8.6, we could begin
> emitting a deprecation message for constructors that return values?
>
> Cheers,
> Ben
>